Mumbai: In a shockingly surreal incident, a three-year-old boy has not only revealed the details of his murder in his past life, but has also recognised his killer.

The boy, who belongs to the Druze ethnic group in the Golan Heights region near the Syrian and Israeli border, has a long, red birthmark on his head and claims that he was murdered with an axe.

According to Druze beliefs, birthmarks are related to past-life deaths and when the boy was old enough to talk, he told his family that he had been killed with an axe blow to his head.

It is customary for Druze elders to take a child at the age of 3 to the home of his previous life if he remembers it. The boy already knew the village he was from, and upon reaching the village, he also remembered his past life name.

Village locals told the elders that the man who the boy was claiming to be a reincarnation of had gone missing before four years.

The boy also remembered the full name of his killer, who upon confrontation, turned white and refused to admit to the murder.

The three-year-old then claimed that he could take the elders to where the very spot where the body was buried. On reaching the spot, they not only discovered the skeleton, but also the wound to the head, which was strikingly similar to the boy's birthmark. They also found the axe that had killed the boy in his previous life.

The killer then had no option but to admit to the crime.

The entire story has been documented in German therapist Trutz Hardo's book 'Children Who Have Lived Before: Reincarnation Today'.