AN inquest was opened on Thursday into the riddle of two men whose bodies were found on a beach two days after a lower leg belonging to one of them had been discovered several miles away across a strait.

The two were Richard Adam Hollis, 37, originally from Preston, and 18-year-old Nathan James Orritt of Blackpool.

Coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said at the Caernarfon hearing : "A public inquest will be held as soon as I receive files from the police and the forensic reports."

He recalled how on February 7 a dog walker on the beach at Felinheli, between Caernarfon and Bangor, found a lower leg and foot.

Two days later another walker discovered two men lying dead together in the sand near Llanddwyn, on the west coast of Anglesey, one lacking a leg. The bodies were taken to Glan Clwyd Hospital for forensic examination and they were identified "very quickly" by fingerprints.

Mr Pritchard Jones said : "We have theories as to what happened to these two men but inquiries are ongoing and therefore I will not say any more."

Although not stated at the inquest, it is believed the men had been tied together.