Three mummified bodies found in Japan home

TOKYO (AFP) - Police who broke into a locked home in Japan after neighbours complained of a foul smell found three partially mummified and almost naked bodies, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The bodies, which were partly decomposed and partly desiccated, were wearing only underwear in the living room of the two-storey house in Namerikawa, 250km north-west of Tokyo.

The dead were believed to be Shoichi Osaki, a 78-year-old pensioner who owned the house, his 45-year-old daughter and mentally handicapped 40-year-old son, a local police spokesman said by telephone.

Neighbours alerted police after not seeing the three for around a month.