Police investigating the murders of three women in Suffolk in England say the bodies of two people have been discovered this afternoon.
The bodies were found around 8km outside the city of Ipswich after a member of the public raised the alert.
The development came as police were trying to find two other missing women, all worked as prostitutes.
The detective leading the murder inquiry, Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull, told reporters the 'natural assumption' was that the bodies were those of the missing women.
One of the missing women, a 29-year-old mother of one, has not been seen for a week.
The other, aged 24, has not been seen since late on Saturday night.
Police patrolled the red light area in Ipswich overnight amid fears that the women who work there are being targeted by a serial killer.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland earlier, Det. Chief Supt Gull said it was unclear whether a single person was responsible and that he needed to keep an open mind at this stage.
Mr Gull said that police were working with a number of experts such as geographical experts and behaviour analysts in the effort to find those responsible.
Detectives believe that the women who work those streets and their clients could provide vital clues in the hunt for the killer.
They have still not formally linked the murders of the two women whose bodies were found near Ipswich in the past ten days, and the third, whose body was found on Sunday.
However it has been confirmed that the third woman, 24-year-old Anneli Anderton, was strangled.
