Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a human torso wrapped in plastic was found in a nature reserve.

The male victim, found near a bunker in Salford’s Kersal Dale wetlands on April 4, remains unidentified.

Greater Manchester Police said the two men arrested, aged 42 and 68, are from Salford and were thought to know each other.

The 42-year-old man was arrested when officers boarded a bus on Eccles Old Road around midday, police said.

The older man was later arrested at an address on Worsley Road.

Hundreds of officers, divers and search dogs initially combed the area along the River Irwell after a passer-by discovered the torso.

The identity of the victim, believed to be a white man in his 40s who had been dead for several days, has not yet been determined, despite an analysis of DNA databases.

The remains, which consist of the lower back, buttocks and thighs, had no distinguishing marks, police previously said.

The force said the latest arrests came after its officers tracked CCTV footage for hundreds of hours.

A 20-year-old man previously arrested on suspicion of murder was later released on bail pending further inquiries.

Detective Superintendent Lewis Hughes, of the force’s Serious Crime Division, said further searches were likely to be carried out across the city in the coming days as they left “no stone unturned”.

He said they were determined to identify the victim, who “could be a father, brother, son or cousin.”

He added: “He is a man over 40 years old, with a white skin tone, believed to be European, and most likely had blonde or light brown hair and blue eyes.”