A 48-year-old British man was charged with murdering five prostitutes in Ipswich, the police announced on Thursday.

The police said Stephen Wright was arrested on Tuesday at his home of Ipswich, Suffolk, east England.

The naked bodies of five prostitutes from Suffolk, aged between 19 and 29, were found in early December in rural areas within 10 miles (about 16 km) from Ipswich. They were all drug-users.

A total of 412 detectives have been deployed for the case, the biggest ever for a murder investigation.

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2006)