Chinese police on Wednesday confirmed that the 121 skulls found in the western Gansu Province were human and had been hacked from their bodies after death.

The skulls, wrapped in a plastic bag, were found on March 26 by a herdsman in a ravine in an outlying mountain area of Tianzhu Tibetan autonomous county, a source with the Ministry of Public Security said.

Local police initially suspected that the skulls belonged to monkeys, after a preliminary analysis of fur, hair attached to the skulls and their shape.

But forensic experts from prestigious Lanzhou University, in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, said the skulls were human after they examined 13 samples.

On April 2, the Ministry of Public Security sent a team of forensic scientists, DNA specialists, and anthropologists to Gansu Province to investigate, according to the police source.

The skulls were both male and female and belonged to people of all ages, old and young, said Professor Chen Shixian, a forensic expert hired by the police, but he dismissed rumors that the skulls were dumped by hospitals after doctors had removed the brains for medical purposes.

Investigations showed no signs of medical expertise in the decapitations, Chen said, adding that they found no signs of fatal injuries.

He declined to comment any further on the continuing investigation.

Police said they were still probing the origins of the skulls, where and how the decapitations had taken place.

Editor: Yan