Richard III's remains 'found under car park' in Leicester

Archaeologists hunting for the remains of King Richard III may have made a crucial breakthrough – after finding human remains in the ruins of a medieval friary underneath a modern-day car park.

A team from Leicester University, which has been digging in the city centre, will today announce what it claims is "a dramatic development in the search for Richard III".

Last month, archaeologists began searching for the body of the last king of the House of York, who was defeated in battle by a Lancastrian army in 1485. They have unearthed the site of a Franciscan friary in Leicester called Grey Friars, and also believe they have found the burial place of Richard – a church – where human remains were found. The DNA material will be tested to see if matches that of a 17th-generation descendent of the monarch's sister.

Richard Taylor, a spokesman for the university, said: "What we have uncovered is truly remarkable".

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