The 14 plastic bags recovered from a vacant piece of land in the southern part of the city contained only medical waste and not bodies of newborns as stated earlier, police said Sunday.

Initially, police officials said they were verifying whether the bags recovered from the Haridebpur area contained bodies of newborns.

Later at a press conference, DC South West Division Nilanjan Biswas said it appeared the bags contained foetuses.

Following what seemed a shocking revelation, Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar and other officials rushed to the spot.

Within an hour of his earlier comment, Biswas took a U-turn saying after examination at a hospital it was found that the bags contained medical waste and there was “no sign of any human foetus”.

The plastic bags actually contained medical waste, it was found later, another official said.

The plastic bags were found on the grassy land on Raja Rammohan Roy Sarani under the Haridebpur Police station area when labourers were cleaning the patch, the official said.