A severed human head, suspected of that of a woman aged between 35 and 40, was recovered from a garbage dump in Kolkata's Tollygunge area on Friday morning, police said.

Local people spotted a plastic bag containing the body part in a vat on Graham Road under Golf Green police station area early this morning, they said.

Senior police officers of the South Suburban Division, along with personnel from local police stations, rushed to the spot and started an investigation. The severed head has been sent to M R Bangur Hospital for further examination, an officer said.

"A human body part has been recovered from a garbage dump. A probe has been launched which is currently at a preliminary stage. Efforts are underway to locate the remaining body parts," Bidisha Kalita, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Suburban Division), said after visiting the scene of recovery.

While identification of the victim is the key to solving the crime, investigators from the homicide section of Kolkata Police's Lalbazar headquarters are relying on all available CCTV camera footage from the locality to identify the assailant, a police source said.

Relevant samples from the recovery spot have also been collected by personnel of the scientific wing of the city police.

The injury mark and blood stains on the severed head suggest that the murder took place within 12 hours of its recovery, a police officer said. A fix on the time of crime would, however, be ascertained only after post-mortem examination scheduled to be conducted later in the day.

A sniffer dog pressed into service by the sleuths tracked the source of the body part to a residential apartment about a kilometre away from the vat but could proceed no further.

Investigators were seen spending about an hour and half at the apartment questioning residents and staff. Two constables were later posted at the apartment entry gate to track movements of people moving in and out.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation councillor of Ward number 95, Tapan Dasgupta said, "I went to the spot after receiving information from local people about a plastic bag containing body parts. I informed the Golf Green police station about it."

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.