POLICE searching for a Russian student missing for more than seven months are investigating the discovery of remains in rural Argyll.

Walkers stumbled across the badly decomposed human remains, believed to have been partly wrapped in plastic, in woodland off the A83 near Arrochar on Thursday. The discovery is being linked to missing 22-year-old Yulia Solodyankina.

Yulia was studying physics at Edinburgh University before she vanished last summer.

The Russian was reported missing on June 12, six days after leaving a gig at the Wee Red Bar in Lady Lawson Street in Edinburgh when she complained to friends of feeling unwell.

Yulia was last spotted on CCTV at Glasgow's Buchanan Street bus station at around 4.55pm on June 7.

Last summer, police said, based on previous journeys she had made, that they believed she may have travelled to the north or far west of Scotland.

Her parents made an emotional appeal after she disappeared, describing their daughter as "our life".

A police spokeswoman said: "Further examination of the remains will take place.

She added: "The inquiry is at a very early stage and nothing further is available at this time."