Police in northeastern Brazil say they have arrested three people who allegedly killed at least two women, ate parts of their bodies and used their flesh to make stuffed pastries known as empadas that they then sold.

Inspector Wesley Fernandes of the Garanhuns city police department told the Globo TV network that a man, his wife and his mistress have confessed to the grisly crimes.

The three were arrested last Wednesday.

Fernandes says the three said they belonged to a sect that preached "the purification of the world and the reduction of its population".

Police traced the three after one of the women used a credit card belonging to one of the victims who disappeared last month.