A man who allegedly stabbed his friend in the chest during a drunken row and then chopped him to pieces with a power saw has been seized by police.

Investigators believe the killer then buried the body parts in a shallow grave in woodlands near Chernoye, Leningrad Oblast, Russia.

He dumped the knife and saw in the Izhora River, they said.

A gruesome police video of a reconstruction of the crime shows the suspect apparently revealing how he dragged his dead pal to a bathtub, where he cut him into pieces.

The police hunt began when the daughter of the victim – named as Denis Kuzmin, 42 – reported him missing.

He had gone to see his friend on 12th July and never returned. Police believe he was killed the following night.

His ‘friend’ was arrested on Monday, 1st August. He faces murder charges.

Police said the suspect has a previous conviction for a similar offence.

In a statement obtained by Newsflash on 2nd August, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the city of Saint Petersburg said: “The investigating authorities of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for Saint Petersburg are investigating a criminal case initiated on the grounds of a crime under Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder) on the incident of the disappearance on 12th July, 2022, in the Kolpinsky district of the city of a man born in 1979.

“Investigators, together with employees of the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as a result of well-planned investigative actions and operational search activities, found that an acquaintance of the missing person, a resident of Kolpino, born in 1980, previously convicted of similar crimes, was involved in the commission of this crime. Charges have been brought against him, and the issue of choosing a measure of restraint is being decided.

“According to the investigation, on the night of 13th July, 2022, the accused, being in the apartment of one of the houses on Tosnensky Lane, together with the victim, during the conflict inflicted at least one blow with a knife on the torso area. The man died at the scene from his injuries. Further, in order to hide the traces of the crime, the accused dismembered the body and took it to the village of Chernoye, Volosovsky District, Leningrad Region, where he buried it in a ravine.

“The investigative-operational group carried out a trip to the scene indicated by the accused, where the body of a man was found.

“A set of measures is being taken to clarify all the circumstances of the incident. The criminal investigation is ongoing.”