Austrian tattooist chopped into bits in Berlin

German police and the Austrian foreign ministry are investigating after a chopped-up body found in a river in Berlin was identified as an Austrian.

Investigators in the capital city of Germany want to await the results of a DNA check. However, they announced today (Weds) that a friend of Raoul Schmidhuber, 31, identified the torso – because of his distinctive tattoos.

The tattooist, who moved from Hallein in the Austrian province of Salzburg to Berlin half a year ago, went missing a few weeks ago. A fisherman found body parts belonging to the man in the Spree River last week before police divers discovered his torso, legs and arms in a suitcase and plastic bags at the bottom of the same waterway earlier this week. Schmidhuber’s head was found by kids playing at the Schäfersee Lake yesterday. His body was separated by a circular saw or a chainsaw, according to newspapers.

Berlin press report that police are convinced that Schmidhuber’s killers could have been close to him.