Skeletons missing hands, feet found in Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair

Five human skeletons - all missing their hands and feet - have been discovered at Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's eastern front military headquarters in present-day Poland, buried inside the villa of Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering.

The bodies of three adults, a baby and an older child were discovered by a group called the Latebra Foundation while digging in the Wolf's Lair.

"You'd never expect such things in such a place as it was ... the most guarded place in the Third Reich and after the war, the Russians took over this place," Latebra member Dominik Markiewicz told Reuters.

"Everyone wondered what might have happened there ... We tried to think of something, but nothing reasonable comes to mind," he said. "We didn't know what we were dealing with at all. Were they some occult rituals of Third Reich fanatics? We have no idea."

He added it was not clear whether the skeletons dated from World War Two, or had been buried there subsequently.

Sebastian Trapik, deputy head of education and tourism promotion of the Srokowo Forest District, the Polish government agency responsible for the site, told Reuters the bodies had been found buried just below the ground in a part of the building where there had once been a wooden floor.

Daniel Brodowski, spokesperson for the prosecutor's office in nearby provincial capital Olsztyn, said an investigation had been opened and forensic investigators had examined the bodies under police supervision.