A total of 121 skulls whose tops had been sawn off were discovered last week in a forest in Northwest China's Gansu Province. DNA tests are underway to work out if the skulls belong to human being. The skulls were first thought to be monkeys, but a local professor held a suspicion that they belong to human being as he had found plastic teeth in a jaw of one of the skulls. [Lanzhou Morning Post]

The skulls showed lethal head injuries and the crowns of many of the skulls were sawn off, police said.

Authorities declined to speculate about the nature of the killings.

State Radio cited the expert, Chen Shixian, about the state of the skulls.

The tops had been sawn off after the people died, according to China National Radio.

Chen said the skulls were not sawn for medical purposes. He said the victims were of all ages and both genders, as did scientist Liu Naifa at Lanzhou University in the provincial capital Lanzhou.

Police were investigating, including the source of the skulls and location of the sawn-off parts.

A herdsman in the Tibet Autonomous County of Tianzhu in Gansu found the skulls in a hillside forest in Tanshanling Town on February 25. Another villager told police on March 27.