PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (AFP) — The remains of at least 50 infants and six adults were discovered Saturday after they had apparently been discarded at a cemetery in Trinidad and Tobago, police said.

A preliminary investigation showed it “may be a case involving the unlawful disposal of unclaimed corpses,” the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) said in a statement.

The bodies were found at Cumuto Cemetery, about 40 kilometers from the capital Port of Spain on Trinidad.

Police said the six adult remains included four male and two female corpses, with all but one of the men found with identification tags.

Two of the bodies, one male and one female, had signs indicating autopsies had been performed on them.

“The TTPS stresses that this is an active and developing investigation, and further forensic analysis is underway to determine the origin of the remains and any associated breaches of law or procedure,” the statement said.

Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro called the discovery “deeply troubling,” saying his agency was handling the case “with urgency, sensitivity and unwavering commitment to uncovering the truth.”

Trinidad and Tobago, an English-speaking archipelago nation located about 10 kilometers off the Venezuelan coast, has reckoned in recent years with rising violent crime, recording 623 murders in 2024 among the population of 1.5 million.

A US State Department report said the murder rate of 37 per 100,000 people made Trinidad and Tobago the sixth most dangerous nation in the world in 2023.

The murder rate fell 42 percent the following year, but Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar declared a state of emergency in March due to another rise in violent crime.