A prisoner in a French jail has admitted murdering a cell-mate and eating part of his internal organs.
The incident, only the second case of cannibalism ever recorded in French prisons, occurred in the jail in Rouen in upper Normandy on Tuesday night.
A 31 year old prisonerwas found dead, with a large hole in his chest.
A 35 years old fellow prisoner, serving a term for armed robbery, told prison officials that he had eaten the man's heart.
This confession was initially dismissed as a macabre fantasy.
An initial autopsy showed that the dead man's heart was intact.
On further examination, however, a pathologist found that part of one of the dead man's lungs and some muscle tissue were missing.
The public prosecutor for the Rouen area, Joseph Schmit, said yesterday that the cannibalism clam was "very probably true".
"Late last night, I was informed that two sections of muscle were missing from the rib-cage as well as the upper half of the left lung," M. Schmit said.
Authorities believe that the assailant may have mistaken the dead man's lung for his heart.
The self-confessed murderer and a third man, aged 34, who was present in the cell, have been arrested.
They face accusations of "pre-meditated murder".
The motives for the attack remain unclear.
The three men had requested to share a cell just before Christmas.
None of their names or details were immediately released.
"Nothing in his history could have led one to believe that this man could have been capable of such an act," the French prison service said.
