KABANGA (AFP) — Seventeen human skulls, including those of children, have been unearthed in boxes in an underground chamber at a suspected shrine in the center of Uganda, police told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Tuesday.

Children foraging for firewood outside the village of Kabanga near Mpigi town, about 40 kilometers west of the capital Kampala, made the grisly discovery on Sunday, according to local residents.

Shocked villagers told police there were metallic boxes containing what appeared to be skulls in an underground chamber beneath one of three ruined shrines on a sleepy hillside.

"We swiftly moved in and dug up the place, and so far we have recovered 17 human skulls," regional police spokesperson Majid Karim told AFP.

"We are conducting more excavations to ensure there are no more skulls other than what we have so far recovered," he said.

The underground chamber "was well built" and was more than two meters deep, police said.