Budapest victims may have been buried alive

HUNGARIAN police have launched a criminal investigation after unearthing four bodies on an island in Budapest, a police spokesman said, and a newspaper reported that the victims may have been buried alive.

The National Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that medical experts would establish the causes and circumstances of the deaths.

“The criminal scene investigation has finished,” police spokesman Laszlo Bartha said, declining to comment on media reports that more bodies could be found.

Daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet said police had been tipped off by a man who had escaped after being buried up to his chest.

A Serbian man suspected of the murders had led police to the scene, in a forest in Csepel port, the newspaper said.

The victims may have been buried alive and more could yet be found, it said.

National news agency MTI said the Serbian embassy in Budapest told it the suspect was not a Serb national, and it believed he was Macedonian and a loan shark.

Police would not confirm any details about the suspect.

Three arrests have taken place, with reports suggesting that victims were lured into woods, attacked and dumped into holes that were previously dug.

The assailants are reported to have taken credit cards and PIN codes before burying the victims alive.

The mass grave indicates that the same method was used on several occasions.