Ottawa, Ontario A severed human foot was posted to the headquarters of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative party, police said on Tuesday.

Police were called shortly after a receptionist opened a blood-soaked box. The first officers to arrive saw what appeared to be blood stains on the package and immediately called in a special hazardous-material unit. When the specialists opened the package, police found the severed foot inside.

Police said the package was addressed to the Conservative Party of Canada and not to a specific person. Harper's office is not located at the party headquarters.

The horror was not confined to Ottawa. Ottawa police were consulting with their counterparts in Montreal after they discovered a severed torso in a suitcase. Montreal police sifted through a heap of rubbish in the city's west end to see if they might turn up any missing limbs. Authorities in both cities are trying to determine if there might be a link to the foot mailed to Conservative party headquarters.

Ottawa police said it was too early to speculate on a link.

A Conservative Parliament member who showed up later at his party's headquarters was horrified by the discovery.

"It's just awful," said Brad Trost, who first learned about the incident from TV. He said it was probably someone's "sick idea."

"I don't think any of us are thinking this necessarily has anything to with politics," he said.

Trost showed up for a meeting but was told by police it was best to leave.

A spokesman for the Conservative party would only say that a suspicious package was sent to their office before referring all questions to Ottawa police.