Czech police have found the skull of a 13th-century saint, days after it was stolen from a church in the north of the country.

Police said they had arrested a suspect, who they said admitted to taking the skull of Saint Zdislava of Lemberk from a glass shrine in the basilica of St Lawrence and St Zdislava in the town of Jablonné v Podještědí on Tuesday.

The 35-year-old man had objected to it being displayed, police said, and had intended to cover it in concrete and dispose of it in a river.

“We know he wanted to sink it in the river today to bid farewell in this way,” the local police chief Petr Rajt told reporters.…