Body of a young child washes up on a beach in north of Spain

The body of a young child, aged 2 or 3 years old, was found this Tuesday morning (11 July) on a beach in Roda de Berà (Tarragona) in the north of Spain. It was found at at around 8.30am after the Catalan police received a call that there was a lifeless body of a very young child lying on the sand. Officers from the Mossos regional police force and the Guardia Civil have started an investigation.

The body was discovered by a beach cleaner and it was found in an advanced state of decomposition and decapitated, according to initial investigations. At the moment it is not known who the child was or how the body appeared the beach.

The mayor of the town, Pere Virgili, has suggested that the corpse may be that of child who died after an incident involving a migrant boat travelling to Europe. From the clothes he was wearing, the municipal official ruled out the possibility that it is a child who could have drowned on the beach.

As the body was found on the shoreline the case is in the hands of the Guardia Civil. The mayor confirmed that the beach is still open but the area where the body was found is closed off until the corpse is removed by judicial authorities.