“An individual handed himself in to police in Frejus after cutting of the head and penis of another man,” police in the southern Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur region said, confirming a report first published in the Var-Matin daily.

Judicial police from the nearby port city of Toulon who are leading the investigation told AFP that the man, 38, had presented himself to police Friday morning in Frejus, a Mediterranean town situated between the glitzy resorts of St Tropez and Cannes.

“He showed the human head and was immediately taken to the police headquarters and detained,” said a police official, who asked not to be named, adding that the man had been known to police until now only for “petty crime”.

Var-Martin said that investigators headed to an apartment in the district of the city where the man said he had committed the crime and found a decapitated corpse. Regional prosecutors are due to issue a further statement later in the evening.