London: Irish police are investigating how a human leg was found at a waste recycling plant in Dublin on Thursday night.
A worker at the site in the Ballyfermot area of west Dublin who found the limb in a bin has been offered counselling following the discovery.
A doctor sent to the plant has confirmed to the Gardai that the leg was human but it has yet to be established if it belonged to a woman or a man.
No one from the Thorntons Recycling plant on Kileen Road was available for comment and all work at the site was suspended on Friday.
The Garda Sochna cordoned off the area around the plant and Ireland’s state pathologist was called in to investigate.
Detectives are exploring two main theories about how the limb ended up at the recycling site. One possibility is that the limb belonged to a homeless person sleeping in a bin somewhere in the Irish capital. There have been instances in the past where homeless people have been lifted inside bins they were sleeping in and picked up by bin lorries but were rescued before being caught in mechanical crushers.
The second theory the Garda will investigate is that the leg could be from the body of a murder victim. Dublin’s crime gangs have recently abducted, killed and hidden the remains of those they killed in disputes over drugs, territory and weapons.
The Garda said they were keeping an open mind as to the circumstances surrounding the discovery.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd
