South Korean confesses to killing 7 women

A South Korean cattle farmer has confessed to killing at least seven women in one of the country's worst murder sprees, police said, adding the suspect may have killed others including his ex-wife.

The police are investigating whether the 39-year-old suspect is also responsible for killing one of his former wives who died in a 2005 fire.

"He has testified that he was unable to hold himself back after committing the first crime," a Gyeonggi provincial police officer in charge of the probe, Park Hak-geun, told reporters.

Park said the man had been arrested on suspicion of the crimes. He has not been charged but would likely be indicted soon, Park added.

The suspect had confessed to killing the seven women between 2006 and 2008 after his wife died in 2005, "leaving him in despair that made him wander mindless through the country, developing the urge to kill women on sight," Park quoted the man as saying.

The suspect told police he picked up his victims usually at karaoke bars or bus stops, offering them rides in his SUV or sedan. He then raped them, strangled his victims with nylon stockings and buried their bodies, Park said.

The country's worst case of serial killing was the murder of 21 women about five years ago by a man in Seoul who said he was driven by rage after being divorced from his wife.

- Reuters