Dubbed the 'Manhattan monster', a horrifying mystery creature with a mutilated face, snarling snout and five toes on each foot has washed up under the Brooklyn Bridge, perplexing New Yorkers.

Amateur photographer Denise Ginley snapped the ghoulish pink carcass while walking along the East River on Sunday and the grisly images, first published by The Gothamist on Monday, have sparked an array of conspiracy theories as to whether it is a giant water-logged rodent, a cooked pig that a family couldn't fit in, a ballooned dog or some other, more sinister, being.

'We were horrified by it and we took some camera phone pictures and then finally we decided to come back with my camera and I got up the courage to climb over the fence and get closer to it,' Ms Ginley told blog Animal NY.

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