Police stumped by foot mystery

The Great Right Foot Mystery deepened last night after a fourth such appendage – unaccompanied by the rest of its owner's body – turned up on a Canadian beach. It, like its three predecessors, was wearing socks and trainers, and had been in the sea a considerable length of time but there any certainty ends. No one has the slightest clue to whom they belong or what is going on.

The riddle began last August when the first two feet washed up on the shore of two small islands north of Vancouver. Then, in February, another right foot appeared, and now a fourth has turned up, on a beach nearer the city. With the police – literally – clueless, and no other facts to go on, the BBC reports that amateur sleuths in the city are having a field day with various theories. The 2004 Asian tsunami, organised crime, a spate of boating accidents, or a serial killer with a taste for dismemberment are among the more sensible suggestions put forward.

Meanwhile, DNA tests are being carried out. But one major question remains: why only right feet?