Dusseldorf - Builders doing preparatory work for a new urban rail line in Germany cut open a Jewish grave and the human remains in it were removed for safekeeping, a municipal spokesman in the western German city of Dusseldorf said Tuesday.

Strict Jewish practice forbids the exhumation of human remains. The cemetery in Dusseldorf was in use until 1789.

Rabbi Julian Chaim Soussan of Dusseldorf told the German Press Agency dpa, "In all likelihood this is a Jewish corpse."

The workers were digging a ditch for a drainage system for an underground rail tunnel, which is planned to pass the downtown site.

Rabbi Soussan said the remains had been handed over to Jewish authorities.

"We will rebury these remains in sacred ground according to Jewish rites," he said.

The city spokesman said work on the ditch was immediately halted and there would be no resumption for the time being.

Work on the actual train tunnel has not yet begun. Municipal and Jewish officials are to discuss the issue in two weeks, after this week's Passover celebrations. Engineers anticipate more graves may come to light if the drainage ditch is continued.

City records show that when the municipal sewers were laid in the area 120 years ago, several Jewish tombstones were dug up, including one that marked the grave of a grandmother of eminent German poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). (dpa)