Owners of a dismantled villa where seven human skeletons were found over the weekend say the bones were medical specimens kept by a medical student who lived in the house decades ago.

Construction workers discovered the skeletons inside the ceiling of the old house on Xijiangwan Road in Hongkou District on Saturday afternoon when they were tearing down the two-story structure.

City police removed the skeletons for testing and investigation, but have not made any comment on the discovery.

Shu Changjing said her younger brother Shu Changyan and his classmates used the skeletons as samples about 40 years ago when they were students at a local medical school.

"They came across many bones when leveling the land in a cemetery in Qingpu District," Shu said.

"As it was a rare opportunity the students kept the specimens and stored them in our attic for the time being."

But the specimens were never removed as other students' parents objected to keeping the skeletons, she added.

Shu's grandfather, an interpreter for Li Hongzhang, a statesman during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), built the villa in 1916 and Shu's father inherited the estate.

For the next several decades the villa housed many of Shu's family members including her elder brother Shu Shi, a famous actor and director.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), some other families moved in, but Shu remained in the building until last week, when she was finally forced out as it was to be demolished to make way for several nearby construction projects.

"No one has ever touched the specimens over the past 40 years and they had almost faded from our memories," she said.

The Youth Daily reported that the skeletons were wrapped in newspapers dating back to May 17, 1967 when they were discovered.

Shu Changyan told reporters he hoped to recover the skeletons from local police and contribute them to his old school, which is now the Medical College of Fudan University, for students to use.

"Most samples used at present are made of plastic, which can't compare with real bone," Shu told reporters yesterday.

(Shanghai Daily July 26, 2005)