A man has been charged with the murder of an eight-year-old boy from a Chasidic Jewish community in New York.

Levi Aron, 35, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, a day after the dismembered remains of Leiby Kletzky were found in two separate locations in Brooklyn.

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Aron had made comments that implicated him in the child's gruesome death. Bloodied knives were also found at his apartment.

Mr Kelly said that police believed Leiby had been kidnapped and then murdered, after Aron "panicked."

Thousands of people had joined a search party after Leiby went missing on Monday afternoon, on his way to meet his parents at a short distance from his summer day camp.

The boy's funeral was held last night, with around 8,000 mourners in attendance. His father, Nachman Kletzky, remembered his son as "very quiet and very respectful, and satisfied and never demanding".

He said: "My child is gone. I'm in very deep sorrow."