Austrian customs officials find human intestines in luggage

VIENNA – Austrian customs officials are used to finding unusual items in travellers’ luggage. But human intestines were not on their list — until now.

The Austrian Press Agency reports that the organ parts were found packed tightly in plastic containers and formaldehyde in a Moroccan woman’s baggage during a recent check at the airport of the southern city of Graz.

It said Monday that the woman told police that she had brought the intestines of her dead husband to Austria to have them examined because she thought he had been poisoned.

The tissue is being subjected to a pathological analysis. Pathologist Gerald Hoefler told state broadcaster authorities in Morocco where the man died gave the cause of death as intestinal obstruction, a diagnosis he says is plausible.