Boy finds mummy in grandmother's house in Germany

A 10-year-old boy in Germany has found a mummy hidden in a corner of his grandmother's attic, a media report said.

The mummy was inside a sarcophagus complete with hieroglyphic adornments, packed in a wooden crate, BBC reported. The mummy had been in the attic for at least 40 years.

But it was not clear whether the bandaged item found by Alexander Kettler in Diepholz in northern Germany is actually a genuine relic from ancient Egypt.

Alexander's dentist father Lutz Wolfgang Kettler told the Bild newspaper he plans to take it to Berlin to be examined by experts.

Kettler, however, said he had little doubt that the sarcophagus, a death mask and a canopic jar - used by ancient Egyptians to store removed organs - that were found nearby, were replicas.

However, he believes the mummy may be real.

The dentist's late father travelled to North Africa in the 1950s. He said that at that time, there was still a trade in genuine mummies.