Three people suspected of cannibalism have been arrested in South Africa after one of them apparently walked into a police station and said: "I am tired of eating human flesh,” local media reports.


“When he was questioned, he produced part of a human leg and a hand," police spokeswoman Col Thembeka Mbhele said.

The man was arrested, along with two other people, following investigations in the area around Estcourt town in KwaZulu-Natal province, she added.

“It is alleged that the suspects raped, killed and cut up the body of a woman, which they then consumed. The allegations by the suspect are that they would rape and kill the victims before they could cut them into pieces and eat their parts,” Col Mbhele was quoted by the News24 site as saying.

The former head of the police's Investigative Psychology Section, Gerard Labuschagne, said people who ate human body parts were often in the throes of psychotic episodes, the IOL news site reported.

“They are usually experiencing audio and/or visual hallucinations - hearing voices or seeing things that aren’t there - and having bizarre thoughts like ‘I must eat this body part as it will make me powerful’," he was quoted as saying.