DNA tests on a headless torso found in the Baltic Sea matched missing Swedish journalist Kim Wall, who is believed to have died on an amateur-built submarine that sank earlier this month.

Wall, 30, was last seen alive on August 10 on Danish inventor Peter Madsen’s submarine, which sank off Denmark’s eastern coast the next day.

The 46-year-old, who was arrested on preliminary manslaughter charges, denies having anything to do with the reporter’s disappearance.

The headless torso was found by a member of the public who was cycling on Copenhagen’s southern Amager island on Monday, near where Wall was believed to have died.

Copenhagen police said on Tuesday that the arms and legs had been “deliberately been cut off” the body.

Police investigator Jens Moeller Jensen said yesterday the body was attached to a piece of metal, “likely with the purpose to make it sink” and the body “washed ashore after having been at sea for a while”.

He added police found marks on the torso indicating someone had tried to press air out of the body so it would sink to the bottom and not float.

“On August 12, we secured a hair brush and a toothbrush to ensure her DNA. We also found blood in the submarine and there is a match,” said Moeller Jensen.

The cause of the journalist’s death is not yet known, according to police.