British police experts are helping Cypriot authorities investigate a number of gruesome murders carried out by a suspect serial killer.
Police spokesman Andreas Angelides told reporters the British team met Cyprus chief of police Zacharias Chrysostomou and were briefed by investigators.
He said the experts, who came to the island at Nicosia’s request via Europol, would assist in a complex case dubbed Cyprus' "first serial killings”.
"There was a meeting with the heads of the investigations, where a first presentation of the findings, details and background was given for a full update," Angelides said.
British police experts – including a forensic specialist and clinical psychologist — later visited the scene where the search for bodies at a lake is ongoing.
Cyprus police have recovered the remains of a fourth victim dumped by a suspected serial killer.
Further searches on Tuesday ended without result but will continue over the coming days, police said.
The remains of an adult woman were found Sunday stuffed into a suitcase at the bottom of a toxic lake next to a disused mine southwest of the capital Nicosia.
The suspect, a 35-year-old Greek Cypriot army officer, has allegedly confessed to killing five foreign women and two of their daughters in a crime spree that went undetected for nearly three years.
Angelides said the woman pulled from the lake has yet to be identified.
Police are still searching for the body of a six-year-old Filipina girl at another lake, daughter of one of the murdered women.
"We consider that there is some degree of difficulty and risk…but we will continue and make decisions based on unfolding evidence,” said Angelides.
Authorities have called for more sophisticated equipment to search two lakes thought to contain bodies of the other victims.
Police are also probing the cases of a missing Romanian mother and her young daughter as well as unidentified Asian woman also on the list of the killer's suspected victims.
The case came to light two weeks ago when tourists spotted the first body, that of 38-year-old Mary Rose Tiburcio from the Philippines brought to the surface of a disused mine shaft by unusually heavy rains.
That triggered a murder investigation which led to the army captain's arrest on April 18.
Days later, authorities found the body of a second woman in the shaft believed to be Arian Palanas Lozano, 28, also from the Philippines.
The suspect on Thursday showed investigators to a well near an army firing range outside the capital where police found the body of an unidentified woman of Asian descent.
Police have come under criticism for not initially following up leads when the women were initially reported missing and Angelides said the police chief had ordered an internal inquiry into those complaints.
