Husband held after woman's dismembered body found in Paris park: source

French police on Thursday detained for questioning the husband of a woman whose dismembered body was found in plastic bags at different locations in a popular Paris park, a source close to the investigation told AFP.

The body parts of the woman had been discovered in the Buttes-Chaumont park in the north of the French capital earlier this month.

Prosecutors told AFP that an individual had been detained in the case but warned that no further information would be made public for now.

The discovery shocked residents of the capital where the park is hugely popular with joggers and families due to its unusually hilly landscaping.

The woman, 46, had been reported missing by her husband on February 6. The pair lived in the Seine-Saint-Denis department northeast of Paris, prosecutors said.

The Le Parisien daily, which first reported his detention, said that the couple had three children and the husband had only reported her disappearance a week after she vanished.

Police investigating the disappearance had not turned up any leads until now.

Park workers found the lower torso of a woman in a plastic bag hidden under leaves and further remains, including the head, were found during a thorough search of the park by police a day later.

French channel BFMTV had reported last week that the husband had come under suspicion in the investigation after giving contradictory evidence.

Prosecutors then launched another investigation into how this information had been leaked to the channel.

Built during the major relandscaping of the French capital under Napoleon III in the 19th century, the park most recently starred as the setting for a romantic picnic in the third series of "Emily in Paris".

It has also been a popular setting for classic French films ranging from Eric Rohmer's "The Aviator's Wife" to Gaspar Noe's more recent film "Love."

© 2023 AFP