Chow Hok Kuen, 28, a British citizen born in Hong Kong of Taiwanese parents, was arrested in Bangkok's Chinatown and was being held for possession of human remains, police said.

It is thought he was trying to smuggle the corpses into Taiwan.

WARNING: Graphic content. 

Human remains: Two of the six foetuses wrapped in gold leaf which were seized by police in Bangkok, Thailand. A British man has been arrested

'The bodies are of children between the ages of two and seven months. Some were found covered in gold leaf,' Wiwat Kumchumnan, sub-division chief of the police's Children and Women Protection unit, said.

It was not clear where the bodies came from.

Police said the corpses had a number of religious threads and tattoos on them.

In Thailand there is a grisly ritual known as 'Kuman Thong', where dead babies are surgically removed from their mother's womb and undergo a ceremonial ritual.

But instead of burying them, they are roasted dry and covered with a lacquer before being painted with gold leaf.