A Chinese man who landed at Romania's main airport carrying a bear paw in his luggage has been detained by authorities.

When a scanner detected the paw in the man's suitcase, airport officials in Bucharest first thought they were human remains, but a lab soon identified the bones as a bear paw, prosecutors said in a statement.

The 54-year-old Chinese tourist, who was not identified, said he had frozen the bear foot and planned to take it to a restaurant in Italy.

The bear is a protected species in Romania, and transporting such animal parts is illegal.