A human leg washed up on a private beach in Florida, brought to the site by the current in Tampa Bay, according to local authorities, who on Wednesday were seeking clues that would help them identify the victim.

The Tampa Tribune reported in its online edition that the leg - consisting of the thigh and lower leg, but missing the foot - was found on Tuesday in the city of St. Petersburg on Florida’s west coast by a Canadian tourist couple who had rented a vacation home located on the beach.

Local forensic authorities said that the investigation was focusing on trying to determine the race, sex and age of the victim.

Meanwhile, police on Wednesday combed the waters of the bay searching for other human body parts.

St. Petersburg police officer Mike Kovacsev told the daily, in discussing the clean cut marks by which the leg was evidently severed from the body, that law enforcement authorities do not know the way in which the person’s death occurred, but obviously the supposed killer(s) took great pains in dismembering the body.

At present, authorities believe that the limb is the right leg of a rather heavyset white person - likely a woman - and that it had been in the water for one or two days.