A witness recounts the circumstances of the macabre discovery on Monday in a sinister place in Mont-Saint-Martin - a stone's throw from the Luxembourgish and Belgian borders.

The case of the dismembered body of a young woman, which was discovered early Monday afternoon on the outskirts of an old disused supermarket in Mont-Saint-Martin, has shaken the town of nearly 9,000 inhabitants.

Abdelkader, a 50-year-old resident of Mont-Saint-Martin, said he witnessed the discovery early Monday afternoon. He was at the café which is thirty-four metres from where the body was discovered when a young man came to get him. He was peeing behind the shop which has been closed for years when he came across the body. The young man thought it was a dummy at first, the witness explained.

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The dismembered body was discovered behind this former supermarket in Mont-Saint-Martin. / © Domingos Oliveira / RTL

Abelkader remembers a strong smell of putrefaction on the site before he saw the dismembered body of a woman. The body was missing a head and both arms, and was dismembered below the knees. There were no traces of blood, said Abdelkader, who concluded that the body must have been transported from place A to B.

'B' being an old bin at the back of the supermarket which has become a dumping ground in this urbanisation zone where one finds rubbish, car tyres, bathtubs, etc.

The naked body of the victim - a relatively young woman, according to the Nancy prosecutor's office - will be autopsied at the Nancy forensic institute.

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© Domingos Oliveira / RTL

Catherine Galen, the Val-de-Briey public prosecutor, is convinced the case is clearly criminal. Her office was relinquished on Monday afternoon, after the judicial police had conducted investigations.

Abdelkader also remembers how witnesses went to meet the local policeman, whom they know well after the discovery. He didn't believe it until several colleagues arrived to the scene.

As for the person who discovered the horrible scene, he was immediately taken care of by the fire brigade and left with the ambulance.

Last Thursday, about fifty kilometres further south, another headless body was discovered by walkers in the state forest of Moyeuvre-Grande, not far from Val-de-Briey. According to Catherine Galen, the death of this man could date back several months.

But there is no link as yet between the two cases, said Stéphane Javet, deputy public prosecutor.