TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A teenage boy holding a severed head appeared at a police station in northern Japan on Tuesday, saying he killed his mother, an official said.

The 17-year-old boy turned up at the police station in Aizu Wakamatsu city in Fukushima prefecture (state) Tuesday morning with the severed head, local police official Hisayoshi Watanabe said.

The boy told police officials that he killed his mother but it was not immediately clear if the head was the mother's, according to Watanabe.

No other details were immediately available, Watanabe said.

Kyodo News agency said that the boy, a high school senior, brought the head in a bag. A body without a head has been found in the boy's apartment, Kyodo said.

The incident follows a string of high-profile dismemberments in Japan.

On Monday, a severed human leg was reportedly found in a small river in central Tokyo. Kyodo said the leg was believed to be that of an adult but other details were unknown.

In January, a 32-year-old woman was arrested after she confessed to killing her husband, dismembering him with a saw and dumping body parts around Tokyo.

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