Archaeologists have unearthed a mysterious coffin-within-a-coffin near Richard III's burial site.
The University of Leicester team lifted the lid of a medieval stone coffin this week - the final week of their second dig at the Grey Friars site, where the medieval king was discovered in September.
This is the first fully intact stone coffin to be discovered in Leicester in controlled excavations - and is believed to contain one of the friary's founders or a medieval monk.
Within the stone coffin, they found an inner lead coffin - and will need to carry out further analysis before they can open the second box.
Archaeologists have taken the inner lead coffin to the University's School of Archaeology and Ancient History, and will carry out tests to find the safest way of opening it without damaging the remains within.
It took eight people to carefully remove the stone lid from the outer coffin - which is 2.12 metres long, 0.6 metres wide at the "head" end, 0.3 metres wide at the "foot" end and 0.3 metres deep.
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The inner coffin is likely to contain a high-status burial.
Tantalisingly, the individual's feet can be seen through a hole in the bottom of the casket.
The archaeologists suspect the grave could belong to one of three prestigious figures known to buried at the friary.