The sixth "foot" discovered wearing an Adidas trainer on the shores of British Columbia earlier this week was not human, but rather "a skeletonised animal paw ... inserted into the shoe with a sock and packed with dried seaweed", the BC Coroners Service (BCCS) reports (pdf).

The BCCS slammed the hoax as "reprehensible and very disrespectful to the families of missing persons", adding: "It fuels inappropriate speculation and creates undue anxiety for families and communities while wasting valuable investigative time and resources that could be spent on the main investigations."

The investigations in question are probing the four right feet and single left foot which have washed ashore since last August. Speculation has linked them to organised crime, boating accidents, the 2004 Asian tsunami or the disapearence of four victims of a 2005 plane crash. ®

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