Residents of Broughty Ferry and Monifieth have spoken of their shock after discovering a blood-stained body bag on a beach.
The chilling discovery near Balmossie Bridge took many by surprise and the police were called. After making inquiries, however, officers discovered the bag contained a large, dead seal.
High up the beach on the rocks, and leaking blood on to the sand, the bag attracted dogs and walkers worrying about its contents.
The animal had washed up on the beach and officers from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) had placed it into a bag ahead of a planned uplift.
Dog walker Emma Burnett saw the grisly scene. She said: “It was someone else that shouted me over to see it.
“Obviously, the dogs were also going crazy because of the blood. It was quite gruesome; it crossed my mind, given the size of it, that it might be a human body.
“By the time the police arrived, quite a few people had gathered. They said the Marine office must have bagged it up but it was big.”
Emma said many people had been left alarmed by the discovery.
“It was certainly quite scary, the way the bag was sitting there on the beach,” she continued.
“We walk there every day and there are often things washed up. Usually they just let nature take its course.
“I’ve never seen anything in a bag like that before.”
A police spokesperson said: “We were contacted and attended, and were advised by the marine agency that they had put a dead seal into a bag.
“They were dealing with it and disposing of it.
“We were only made aware of it in as much as we might get calls regarding it.”
The police said that the remains were due to be collected by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
Nobody from the MCA was available for comment.