BEIJING, April 14 (UPI) -- The finding of a mummy in China has set off a renewed search for a scientist who disappeared 26 years ago in a remote desert region.
The mummy was found by an expedition near Lop Nur, a former nuclear weapons experiment site in the northwest, the official Xinhua news agency reports. It was in the same area that Peng Jiamu, a noted biochemist, was reported missing in June 1980 after he went to fetch water for his fellow scientists.
Xia Xuncheng, a former deputy to Peng, told Xinhua in a phone conversation: "We're not sure about identity of the mummy, but it's really near the place we lost Jiamu."
Xia, 72, and team will leave soon for Lop Nur to retrieve the mummy. The mummy was found by another scientist last winter while on a different mission, the report said. Xia quoted the scientist as saying that there were no clothes or other belongs around the mummy.
China's laws require that any human corpse found during research must be kept intact and not be removed without authorization.
