Police in Australia have identified the human remains found inside a huge Tiger shark at the weekend.

They announced that the body parts belonged to 52-year-old Lee Kang Suk, a fisherman who was swept out to sea three weeks ago.

The police said the man had probably drowned and been in the water for some time before he was eaten by the shark.

They had checked the files of unsolved murder cases and missing persons in their investigation and had conducted an autopsy.

Clothing match

The victim was reportedly washed into the sea while fishing from rocks near Port Kembla, about 150 kilometres (93 miles) south of Sydney, on 2 April.

Shreds of clothing found in the shark matched those the fisherman was wearing when he was last seen, and dental records confirmed his identity.

The gruesome discovery of a skull, arm and pelvis was made when the fishermen who caught the three-metre (10-feet) long shark on Sunday opened up its stomach.

It evoked memories in Australia of a similar case recorded in 1936, when a Tiger shark that was caught and moved to an aquarium in Sydney, regurgitated a human arm found to be that of a murder victim.

Fatal shark attacks are fairly rare in Australia. Although three swimmers were all bitten last year they all survived. The last recorded fatal attacks were in 2000, when there were three.