Police in the Mozambique's northern Niassa province say they are looking for people who exhumed the body of a man with albinism.

They took his bones for suspected use in witchcraft.

Niassa provincial spokesperson, Alves Mate, said that it was their second attempt on the grave.

"Criminals, carrying hoes, pickaxes and a bucket dug the grave of an albino man. They removed all his bones of the upper part of the body. Then they fled," Mr Mane told a press briefing.

"Had the local people informed us about the first attempt, we could have taken precautionary measures to avoid it from happening again.”

People with albinism, who lack pigment in their skin and appear pale, are often hunted down in central and southern Africa because of the belief that potions made from their body parts can bring good luck and wealth.