The 36 year-old woman, who has not been named, was from the town of Brechin, near the beach at Arbroath where her remains were found on Tuesday, Tayside police said.

She had been reported missing by her employer. Police were still trying to track down her relatives.

She was identified after hundreds of calls were made to police after the gruesome discovery by two sisters aged 8 and 11.

Two hands were also found on the foreshore at Arbroath.

Media reports said police thought the woman had been killed shortly before her body was dumped.

Police said she was a brunette with manicured fingernails and a distinctive circular scar.

On Thursday, searchers combed the shoreline at Carnoustie, the location of last year's British Open Golf championship, after the coastguard said one of their crew members reported finding possible 'human material'.

'Her flat in...in Brechin has been sealed off and officers are currently searching the property,' Detective Chief Inspector Graham McMillan, the senior investigating officer, said in a statement. -- REUTERS