“A construction worker of the Olympic beach volleyball venue observes a dismembered human foot covered with black plastic.” Photo: AP

On Wednesday, parts of a mutilated body were discovered by a street vendor on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach, “just meters” from the site of a volleyball arena being built for this summer’s Olympic Games, Reuters reports.

According to Jornal do Brasil, police say “it is not possible” to state the victim’s sex. From Reuters:

The discovery is the latest to unnerve the city as it grapples with rising crime, a recession and exhausted state finances at a time when it hoped to be celebrating the first Olympics ever held in South America.

It was unclear Wednesday afternoon what conditions may have led to the mutilated body but a policeman standing guard by a security perimeter confirmed its existence to Reuters.

Police officials did not immediately return calls to their public affairs office for more details Wednesday afternoon.

On Monday, civil police officers in Rio de Janeiro went on strike over unpaid salaries, raising already heightened security concerns in the host country currently experiencing an official state of financial disaster, the Associated Press reports.

One group of strikers even demonstrated at Rio’s international airport, welcoming visitors with a banner reading, “WELCOME TO HELL.”