The decomposed body of an unidentified woman believed to be in her mid-20s was retrieved by the police from a litter bin behind the Morning Star High School at Tantra Hill in Accra on Monday.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic after depositing the body at the Police Hospital morgue in Accra, the District Crime Officer at the Mile 7 Police Station, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Henry Agbeve, said the police moved to the scene in the morning following complaints by the school authorities of unbearable stench that had engulfed the whole area.

He said after tracing the source of the stench, the police sighted a blue Zoomlion-labelled bin with flies hovering around it.

Mr Agbeve said when the police team got closer, they realised that the lid of the bin had been nailed shut with a four-inch nail.

He said it was after the police had managed to pry open the bin that they found, to their horror, that it contained the decomposing body of a woman.

The district crime officer said the police suspected the lid containing the body of the woman had been brought from another area to where it was found, since that place was not under the jurisdiction of Zoomlion but another waste company, Asadu.

According to the police, they suspect that the woman had died about three days earlier because of the decomposed nature of the body, and that the tyre marks found around the bin suggested the body had been sent there in a vehicle.

Mr Agbeve said it was not easy to identify the dead woman, who was sporting blue leggings with a black-and-white striped dress over a sleeveless black top, because of the decomposed state of the body.

It is believed that the dead woman, who had a black wig on, had some food with her when she was put in the bin.