A local man has been charged with the gruesome murders of 11 men in Yunnan Province, after a 20-day joint investigation by central and provincial public security organs, police authorities said Sunday.

The police have attested that 11 men had been killed after identifying evidence and comparing DNA test results.

The suspect, Zhang Yongming, 56, started to attack passersby around his home in 2008 and destroyed the bodies by dismembering, burying or burning them.

Zhang was released from prison in 1997 after being incarcerated for murder in 1979. 

Some 17 people had gone missing in Jincheng altogether, with the eldest said to be around 80 years old, the Oriental Morning Post reported last Monday.

Police searching Zhang's home found the young man's cellphone, bank card and other evidence, according to the website, which said more than a dozen other teenagers had gone missing from the village over the years, according to AFP.

Some media reports have painted a far more gruesome picture of the case, saying that Zhang was known as the "cannibal monster" by villagers who had seen plastic bags filled with bones hanging from his home.

Hong Kong newspaper The Standard revealed that the victims' eyeballs had been found preserved inside bottles and that human flesh was found hanging around the home. It also said that police feared Zhang may have sold pieces of his victims as ostrich meat on the marketplace. This has been unconfirmed by authorities.

Global Times