Construction workers found human remains above ceiling tiles in a house under renovation in Pathum Thani on Tuesday.

Kanchana Charoenthong, 59, found the remains while working on a two-storey detached house in Ratchama housing estate near Bangkok. She said that the house had a strong smell since she and her colleagues began work last month but assumed a monitor lizard had hidden some carcasses on the premises.

On Tuesday, she returned to work after the New Year holidays to repair a hole on second-floor ceiling tiles in a corner. The woman said she inserted a saw blade through the hole and it hit fabric. When she used a stick to poke through the hole, a human skull appeared.

She told the house owner and police were called to the scene. A skeleton with clothes, a wire cutter and a migrant Cambodian worker’s ID card were found at the scene.

A neighbour said migrant workers had stayed in the housing estate and a Cambodian worker had gone missing about two years ago.

Police assumed that the man was electrocuted as there was a cut wire near the body.