The bodies of more than 100 human foetuses, apparently from an illegal abortion clinic, were discovered inside a Buddhist temple in central Bangkok, the Thai police said on Monday.
The corpses, wrapped in plastic bags and newspaper, were found by a member of temple staff in a mortuary storage area. "There are more than 100 plastic bags with foetal corpses inside hidden in the storehouse of a temple," said Police Colonel Metee Rakphan.
"We assume that they were from illegal abortion clinics, and we are now investigating." One rescue worker with the Poh Teck Tung foundation, a charity that provides emergency rescue and body recovery services, suggested that hundreds of corpses could eventually be uncovered.
"Our figure we received a moment ago is 240, but we think that there are between 300 to 500 foetuses as we have only searched half the area," he said. Buddhist temples in Thailand not only perform cremation ceremonies, but also store bodies in specially refrigerated areas.
Abortion is illegal in Thailand except when it is judged that delivery would harm the mother or when the pregnancy is the result of rape.