A man brutally murdered a 90-year-old and ate his heart and tongue, blaming voices in his head, French officials said today.

The homeless 26-year-old broke into his elderly victim’s home in Nouilhan, southern France, bashed the man’s head open with an iron rod before ripping out the body parts he consumed.

The man ate the tongue and heart before burning the body and then setting fire to the 90-year-old’s house.

The flames alerted the victim's son, who lives nearby, who discovered his father’s body, investigators said.

The event on Thursday night has shocked the little hamlet, which is home to some 200 people

Before committing the gruesome murder, the man also attacked another villager, hitting him against a tractor.

Police finally managed to arrest the man, from the nearby village of Tarbes in the Haute-Pyrenees department, some three hours into his rampage.

It has chilling similarities with the case of Ronald Poppo, the 66-year-old Florida man who had his face chewed off by bath salt-cannibal Rudy Eugene.

Rough-sleeper Poppo was attacked by Eugene, who ate 75 per cent of Poppo's face off leaving him blind and severely scarred.

Eugene, who also tore Poppo's clothes of and beat him, was shot by police during the incident last year.

(dailymail.co.uk)

ANN.Az