Firefighters responding to a house fire in central France found the dismembered body of an 83-year-old woman in her freezer on New Year’s Day.

AFP received the information from sources close to the investigation, according to BGNES.

The woman's 30-year-old grandson was questioned at the crime scene and was detained pending further investigations.

The fire brigade said it was called on Wednesday evening to a house in an isolated hamlet in the Haute-Vienne department of France.

They managed to extinguish a fire that was contained to only one room, but initially failed to find occupants in the house.

Firefighters and police searched the property and found the mutilated corpse of an 83-year-old woman in a freezer, a source familiar with the investigation said.

A grandson who was at the house made contradictory statements to police, a second source said.