Arm, Leg Found in Dead Shark

.c The Associated Press

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Thai commercial fishermen unloading a catch found a human leg sticking out of the mouth of a shark, Thai police said Monday.

Fishermen made the grisly discovery when the trawler Veeraphap Poonphol 14 returned Sunday to its home port of Samut Prakan, 20 miles south of Bangkok. They also found a man's right forearm in the shark's stomach.

Lt. Col. Somchai Sopacharoen of Samut Prakan police station said that the 12-foot-long white shark was captured in Indonesian waters about a week ago by another boat that offloaded its catch to the Veeraphap Poonphol.

The limbs, which bore several bite marks, had just started to decay, indicating they had been in the shark's stomach one to two weeks, said Dr. Pattana Kitraj of the police Forensic Institute.

Pattana said he believed the shark ate the parts a day or two before being caught, after which the shark's carcass was kept in the ship's deep freeze.

The DNA of the limbs was to be tested in an effort to identify the victim, Pattana said.

Shark meat is a delicacy among Thais and other Southeast and Northeast Asians.


06/17/02 11:38 EDT


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