A newborn baby boy was eaten by monitor lizards after being dumped next to a pond.
The infant was discovered by a group of boys who went to play by the waterside in Nakhon Si Thammarat, southern Thailand on Monday morning (May 11).
Nong Ake, 10, reported the find to a security guard.
The child told police he smelled something strange then noticed a black bag next to the pond, which he went to look at.
The youngster said he saw the dead infant inside and the baby's internal organs had been ripped out.
Police arrived and found that the baby had been dead for one or two days.
They believe that the bite wounds on the infant's body were from monitor lizards, which live in the pond and normally eat fish and scraps of food from bins.
However, officers are now investigating whether the newborn baby boy was abandoned while he was still alive and then eaten by the lizards or if the lifeless body was dumped there and then the scavenging reptiles started to bite at the corpse.
Police Major Colonel Jittakorn Konglhue said the baby's body will undergo a thorough post-mortem examination and DNA tests to try and match the family.
He said: "We believe that the cruel mother left her baby by the pond before it was attacked by the monitor lizards.
"We will check the CCTV around the area to try to identify the mother and arrest her immediately.
"The baby's corpse is now at the hospital to undergo a post-mortem examination to check whether they were alive or dead when they were eaten by the reptiles."