An icy road in Russia's Siberian region of Irkutsk has been covered with sand mixed with human bones, Interfax reported.
Photos of a road near the town of Kirensk with fragments of bones that appeared human and a human skull were posted on social media on November 15, sparking harsh online criticism of the authorities.
The Irkutsk regional police confirmed to Interfax that the bones were human, adding that an investigation was launched into the matter.
The news agency quoted a source as saying that the bones were taken by accident when a company involved in the road work extracted sand at a site close to a cemetery.
Most of the bones are more than a century old, according to the source.