Moscow, Dec 6 (IANS/RIA Novosti): Police in Russia's remote Yakutia region are hunting two men suspected of murder and cannibalism after discovering the remains of one of their friends who got lost with them in the forest this summer.

A group of investigators, including medical experts, has flown to the site to carry out an initial investigation, the Yakutia regional investigative committee said.

The incident began when the group - four men in all - set out on a fishing trip to Yakutia, one of Russia's most sparsely populated regions, Aug 8. They planned to return in two or three weeks.

But they ended up stuck in the region's vast forests after their four-wheel drive vehicle got bogged down, and appealed for a rescue on their mobile phones.

Two of them, Alexander Abdullaev and Alexei Gradulenko, were only found by a helicopter Nov 29.

They told investigators the group had become separated and they had no idea what had happened to the others.

Abdullaev and Gradulenko disappeared from a hospital where they were recovering from their ordeal, after information appeared on the internet suggesting their friend's death was suspicious.

Police found the remains of another man, which showed signs of violent death, near the Sutam river in Yakutia - not far from where the two suspects were rescued.

The skeletal remains "had been hacked up with an axe and had little flesh remaining on them", rescuers said.

Police are carrying out genetic analysis on the remains of the discovered corpse to confirm the identity. The two missing men from the group were named as Andrei Kurochkin and Viktor Komarov.