An aspiring Mexican horror novelist has been arrested after police discovered his girlfriend's torso in his closet, a leg in the refrigerator and bones in a cereal box.

Jose Luis Calva told police he had boiled some of his girlfriend's flesh but that he hadn't eaten it, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

Calva told police he was a writer and poet - officers found the draft of a novel titled Cannibalistic Instincts, the spokesman said.