A Belgian mayor has been found dead in a cemetery with his throat slit open.

The body of Alfred Gadenne, 71, Mayor of Mouscron, was discovered by his wife on Monday evening at Luingne Cemetery, where he was caretaker . 

He had been out to close the site for the night when he was murdered.

Mr Gadenne's was the conservative mayor of Mouscron, an industrial town of 57,000 just across the border from the northern French city of Lille 

His death has shocked the country, with the prime minister expressing 'horror' at the death of the retired national lawmaker.

Local news service SudInfo, citing unnamed sources, said a suspect had handed himself in to police and that the motive was unclear.

The case was handed to a local prosecutor rather than to national counter-terrorism investigators.

'I have learned with horror of the brutal death of Alfred Gadenne,' Prime Minister Charles Michel, a liberal, said on Twitter. All my thoughts are with his family and friends. Among the many others offering condolences was Martine Aubry, the former French Socialist party leader and long-time mayor of metropolitan Lille.

Philippe Courard, president of the parliament for Belgium's French-speaking south, tweeted: 'Terrifying. What kind of world are we living in,