Japan: Man held after police discover nine mutilated bodies in his apartment

The Japanese Police has arrested a 27-year-old man in Zama, after they found nine bodies, including two with their heads severed and dumped in a cool box, in his flat in the Tokyo suburbs.

The Metropolitan Police Department found the corpses and body parts while investigating the accused named, Takahiro Shiraishi in connection with the disappearance of a 23-year-old woman in Hachioji, western Tokyo.

"It's true that I tried to hide the bodies of the people I killed to destroy evidence," The Japan Times quoted the accused as saying to the police.

The police arrested the man, on an initial suspicion of discarding a corpse. Police suspect that one of the bodies may belong to the missing 23-year-old woman.

The police said that the body parts, contained in cooler boxes in the man's apartment, include at least two severed heads. The police plan to carry out DNA tests in an effort to identify the deceased, the investigators added.

The woman was captured by a surveillance camera walking with the man in Zama near Sobudai-mae Station on the Odakyu Line, the police said.

An investigation was launched after the woman's older brother reported her missing to the Takao Police Station in western Tokyo on October 24.

He also said that he has not been able to contact her since October 21.

The apartment is in a residential area along the railway tracks of the Odakyu Odawara Line, about 600 meters from Sobudai-mae Station.

The investigation on the matter is underway.