Body parts killer may have struck before - UK police

British detectives hunting the killer of two women whose dismembered bodies were dumped in bins believe he may have claimed more victims.

Police divers were today searching London's Regent’s Canal close to where the initial gruesome find was made by a tramp foraging for food in Camden, north London.

Parts of the cut-up bodies were wrapped in bin liners and dumped in wheelie bins and a human torso and a saw were later found at the flat of prime suspect 53-year-old Anthony Hardy.

Police have launched a nationwide search for Hardy, who has a history of psychiatric problems.

Earlier today they arrested a man who was spotted in the street by an off-duty police officer in Greenwich, London.

He was taken to Greenwich police station but it soon emerged that it was a case of mistaken identity and the man had nothing to do with the case.

The body parts discovered so far belong to two white women, one thought to be in her 30s and the other in her late teens or early 20s, who are believed to have been killed within the last week.

Detectives are now checking all recent missing persons reports amid fears that there could be other victims.

They are particularly concerned about the fate of a woman who was seen Christmas shopping with Hardy and has now been reported missing. She is believed to have lived in a hostel close to Hardy’s flat.

She had distinctive tattoos allowing police to confirm that she is not one of the victims found so far.

Detective Chief Superintendent David Cook said: “We are particularly anxious to trace this woman.”

He warned the public not to approach bearded Hardy.

He said: “If you look at the nature of the crime that has taken place, clearly the person responsible for this matter must be treated with extreme caution and considered to be dangerous.”

The double murder inquiry began after the tramp found body parts of both victims in bin bags at the back of a pub close to Hardy’s ground-floor council flat in Royal College Street, Camden, north London on Monday.

He took the parts, two sections of the legs of a woman in her 30s, to the nearby National Hospital for Tropical Diseases and staff there called in police.

Officers then searched the bin at the back of the pub, the College Arms, and found the torso of a younger woman also wrapped in a bin liners.

Later, officers sifting through rubbish in the area found seven or eight carrier bags in a wheelie bin thought to contain human remains.

They searched Hardy’s flat and found a second torso and a hacksaw.

Neither of the victims have yet been identified but police do not think they are related or lived at the flat.

The heads, hands and some limbs of the victims are still missing.

Hardy had not been seen in the last couple of days and had not been in the flat when police entered it.

He was believed to have lived in London for some time and his relatives had been contacted but they had not seen him.

There were no signs of a violent struggle in the flat and officers were keeping an open mind about where the murders might have taken place.

Police are now considering that they may have been prostitutes. The area is close to King’s Cross and local people said prostitutes work there. Contact magazines were also found in Hardy’s flat.

Neighbours described him as a loner and inside his flat there were painted crosses daubed on the walls. They said he wore a big black raincoat.

Last January, the body of a prostitute, 38-year-old Rose White, was discovered in his flat but a police investigation ended after a post-mortem examination found she had died of a heart attack.