SEARCH UNDER WATER: Police divers searching the waters around Kowloon, Pier after reports said body parts were dropped from the pier. -- PHOTOS: APPLE DAILY

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The killing has triggered a scare among Hong Kong residents over the possibility of having unknowingly bought and eaten human flesh.

Transport worker Ting Kai Tai, 24, has been remanded in police custody.

Another man, surnamed Au, also 24, was arrested in connection with the murder, but has been released on bail pending further investigations, reported the South China Morning Post newspaper.

The murder is believed to have taken place in Ting's rented flat on April 27, the day teenager Wong Ka Mui was last seen.

She was wearing a black T-shirt and black pants, and carrying a gold handbag, when she left her home at 2pm that day.

The victim's remains have not been found yet, but Hong Kong's The Standard newspaper said DNA taken from blood stains found in the flat matched those on the girl's clothes at home.

The police said Ting had confessed to killing the victim when they were both high on drugs.

He allegedly cut off her head and limbs using a chopper.

He then reportedly peeled off the skin and sliced her flesh and organs into smaller pieces, according to Hong Kong media.

Some of her remains were flushed down a toilet, while the rest were dumped in the back alley of a wet market near the scene of the murder, The Standard reported.

Police were also investigating if the girl's limbs had been mixed with heaps of meat on sale at several butcher stalls at the wet market, reports said yesterday.

The girl's skull and limbs were allegedly weighted with bricks and thrown off the Kowloon City Pier, reports said.

A search by police divers off the ferry pier on Wednesday proved futile.

Local reports said Ka Mui was a top student who quit school in January this year to help support her family.

Some newspapers said she became a prostitute after leaving school and had advertised her services using the name Kimi on the Internet.

A police source said Ting had used the Internet to hire her.

But police said she could have gone onto the Internet to search for friends or part-time jobs and got to know Ting.

The girl's mother and older sister told Chinese media they found it very hard to accept that Ka Mui could become a prostitute.

The sister told the Post that Ka Mui had recently bought a lot of clothes and high-heeled shoes.

'She knows many men, from teenagers to those over 50, but I do not believe she became a prostitute,' 19-year-old Wong Yuen Ping told the Sing Tao Daily.

She said her sister had always wanted to support the family so that their 38-year-old mother, a rag-and-bone trader, could have a better life.

Miss Wong and the victim moved to Hong Kong from the mainland in 2000 and 2005 respectively to join their mother and 64-year-old stepfather.

The Post quoted the vice-principal of Ka Mui's school as saying that she was bright, helpful and outstanding, and the school had tried to persuade her not to quit her studies.