Italian police are on the hunt for a suspected serial killer believed to be responsible for the deaths of three sex workers in the Prati neighborhood of Rome.

The officers were first called to a residential building on Via Riboty late Thursday morning after the porter found the naked, blood-covered body of a woman in the stairwell.

Matthias Rub

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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According to the authorities, the dead man was a 40-year-old prostitute.

Another body was found shortly thereafter in the apartment shared by the two Chinese women.

According to media reports, both women were stabbed in the abdomen and throat.

In the early afternoon, the body of a 65-year-old woman from Colombia was found in a house in Via Durrazzo, around 800 meters away. According to the authorities, she was also known to be a sex worker.

The woman was discovered by her sister in her basement apartment.

The key witness is the porter

Media reports said the three naked women were "slaughtered" in the same way, suggesting that the same perpetrator was behind the bloody crimes.

The doorman of the house in Via Riboty, who had first alerted the police, was heard as the main witness.

The investigators are convinced that the perpetrator or perpetrators must have passed the porter's lodge before and after the murders.

In addition, the autopsy of the corpses should give clues as to the time interval at which the women were killed.

On Friday, investigators evaluated surveillance camera footage and the victims' mobile phones.

The elegant Prati district is north of the Vatican and Castel Sant'Angelo, and security cameras are installed in front of numerous houses and in house entrances.

The three murdered people had obviously communicated with their customers via relevant escort apps, which is why the investigators are hoping for important information by evaluating the murder victims' last contacts.

Eyewitnesses said the house on Via Riboty had been known to have sex workers plying their trade there for at least three years.

The circumstance was brought up at several owners' meetings without anything having changed.

The bestial bloody deeds caused a stir throughout Rome.

According to media reports, Rome's Mayor Roberto Gualtieri is in contact with the Chief of Police and Prefect Bruno Frattasi to be informed about the progress of the investigation.

In media reports on Friday, there was unanimous talk of a "serial killer" who could possibly soon strike again in the milieu of sex workers.