Kidnapped man's thumb dropped from above by a bird

London, March 26 : The thumb of a kidnap victim feared dead was found in a car park - after being dropped from above by a bird, a media report said Friday.

A bored security guard played football with the digit believing it was a discarded chicken drumstick - until he saw the nail, The Sun reported on its website.

He reeled in horror and alerted cops who carried out forensic tests and found the severed thumb belonged to kebab-house worker Mahmood Ahmad, 41.

The married dad-of-two was snatched from outside his home in Watford, Herts, March 7.

Three days later, his cleanly severed thumb dropped from the sky in Ilford, East London.

A security guard said Thursday: "There's video of it falling in the middle of the car park. There's no way it could've been thrown. The guy who found it thought it was a chicken drumstick until he turned it over and saw the nail. It was a thumb and part of a hand."

One cop said: "The only plausible explanation is a bird found it and dropped it from its beak while flying over the area."

Meanwhile, police Thursday released CCTV footage of Ahmad leaving work in Aldgate, East London, on the night he vanished. It is thought his kidnappers tailed his car home. Three men aged 36, 33, and 18, and a youth of 17, have been charged with kidnap. Two men and two women are on bail.