A severely decomposed body was found inside an old railway coach at the Ponnurunni railway marshalling yard, prompting the Kadavanthra police to launch an investigation on Tuesday.

Police sources said the body is suspected to be at least a month old, and the advanced state of decomposition has made identification difficult.

Railway employees alerted the police, who registered a case at the Kadavanthra police station. The incident was reported to the police by an employee who works in the electric section of the yard.

The body was found in a coach that was brought to the yard for scrapping, according to the FIR. The body was shifted to Ernakulam General Hospital for postmortem examination. The police have registered a case of unnatural death.