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A Brazilian footballer's skeleton has been pulled from a piranha-infested river after police allegedly forced him into the water with gun fire.

Luiz Henrique Coelho de Andrade, 21, was unrecognisable when his flesh-eaten remains were recovered on Saturday.

Police allegedly mistook Luiz for a criminal as he headed home from a football match and chased him into the Rio Negro river where they began shooting until he entered the water.

Unable to swim, Luiz struggled to stay afloat and when a potentially life-saving man sailed past on a canoe to the rescue, officers ordered them not to help.

The 21-year-old sportsman who played professionally according to his mum, Leila Coelho, Luiz, had been missing from Educandos, Manaus in northern Brazil, for 11 hours when his body was found.

She says that the officers, who have not been identified, ordered him to get in the river, even though he could not swim, and opened fire at him to force him to do so.

The mother added that the occupants of a passing canoe tried to help the young man, but the police threatened them and ordered them to stop helping him.

Some media outlets, however, reported that the cops in question had been chasing a group of suspected criminals at the time and that Luiz simply fell in the water as he tried to get out of the way.

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They added that those in a passing boat were scared off by the sound of police shooting.

Cops and firemen took part in the search for the missing footballer, whose body was pulled from the Rio Negro, which is a tributary of the mighty Amazon River.

These shocking images show how piranhas in the blackwater river left little flesh on his skeletal remains, which were tangled in a fishing net.

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The police have instructed the young man's family to lodge a complaint with the Internal Affairs Office of the Public Security System over their allegations.

The victim's grieving relatives have said Luiz had no involvement with the crime.

It has not been yet revealed what club he played for.

• Family
• Fishing
• Police
• Shooting

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