British doctor sought after child body parts found

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Police in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia have issued an arrest warrant for a British pathologist after children's organs were discovered in a warehouse.

Police in the town of Halifax say the organs appear to be from one or two children and DNA tests are now being conducted to try and identify the remains.

The warrant for the arrest of Dr Dick van Velzen has been issued across Canada for "improperly or indecently interfering or offering indignity to a dead human body or human remains," police said.

The doctor has been linked to previous cases of the removal of organs and tissue from dead children at the Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool, England.

An inquiry is being held in Britain into more than 800 cases of organ removals, for which parents said they were not advised of, at the hospital.

Police in Halifax said they did not believe the organs were from local children and had been stored at the warehouse for at least two years.

A spokeswoman said the parts were discovered by a worker at the storage facility when a box burst open as cases were being removed from the warehouse after a lease on it expired.

Police believe van Velzen left Canada in 1998 and is probably now working in a hospital in the Netherlands.

Boxes of files and reports from the warehouse are also being examined.

Van Velzen, a cot death researcher, has previously denied acting illegally in relation to his work in England and said organs were given to him for research.

Halifax Regional Police

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