Second Briton arrested in prostitute murder case

British police hunting the suspected serial killer of five prostitutes arrested a second man yesterday and were given more time to question the first suspect detained on Monday.

The naked bodies of the women were found dumped in various rural locations around the usually quiet town of Ipswich in the county of Suffolk in eastern England over the last few weeks.

"A second man has now been arrested by detectives... on suspicion of the murder of all five women," Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull of Suffolk police told a news conference.

The 48-year-old was arrested at his home in Ipswich before dawn yesterday, a day after detectives arrested a 37-year-old on suspicion of murdering Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls.

British media named the second man as Stephen Wright but detectives have declined to confirm his details.

Officers sealed off the street where he lived and detectives wearing special forensic uniforms scoured his home and garden where a tent had also been erected.

Detectives also took away his car for tests. The short time span of the murders, committed within weeks of each other, is unprecedented in recent British history and threatened to overwhelm the small local police force in the early days of the inquiry.

The murders have dominated British headlines in recent weeks, with echoes of the mysterious 19th century east London prostitute killer Jack the Ripper, who killed five prostitutes in 1888 but was never found.