Florida locals scared to go to the beach after human head washes up in sand

Locals say the horrific find has left them traumatised and too scared to go to the beach - as police continue to scour the area on Key Biscayne, Florida, for clues

Terrified locals in a village in Florida say they're too scared to go to the beach after a human head washed ashore on Tuesday morning.

Detectives said a worker who was raking the beach on Key Biscayne discovered the head at around 8:30am before the Miami-Dade Police Department cordoned off a stretch of beach with tape and traffic cones. The horror discovery has sparked a major police investigation with officers continuing to scour the area for clues.

But locals say the distrubing find has left them traumatised, with one admitting she is now too scared to go to the beach. Resident Bahman Amini said: "We have seen all things here but nothing like this what was found this morning, the head of a person. It makes us scared to go to the beach that we love."

It is not yet not known if the head belonged to a male or a female, or how old the person was, police said.

The popular tourist beach is often visited by travellers from across the US, like Alex Portuondo, who came from Denver and used to live in South Florida. She told CBS News : "That's pretty scary and crazy. I have never heard of anything like this happening before on this kind of beach.

"I guess I am curious if they have any information on where it came from, if anything else has been found, if it happened here on the island or washed up on the shore. I guess I assume it might have happened someplace else and washed up here but I do worry because of this."

Kristy Sippel, a tourist from New York City, added: "It is scary. I would like to know what happened. I am curious about it, I guess," said Pat, a tourist from Summit, New Jersey.

Local Miami resident Marcelo Borrelli said: "This is shocking, shocking. You don't hear a lot about that. You heard about drugs washing up on shore and things like that, but a head. I have questions about where it came from, where the remains came from. It is pretty upsetting," added Mollie McAuliffe, another local resident.

Another local said: "We have our children here; our children play on these beaches and it's just beyond belief", while a beach walker said she was quickly turned away by a cop when trying to walk her normal route along the beach. The unnamed woman told NBC10: "He signalled with his finger that I needed to turn around immediately," she said. "I understood the assignment", adding it was "quite disturbing."

The Medical Examiner will now be working with detectives to find out who the individual is. A police spokesperson said: "Detectives are on scene and are working with the Medical Examiner to determine the identity of the individual."