South Korean police said yesterday they had arrested a 34-year-old man suspected of killing at least 19 people in what could be the country?s biggest case of serial murder.

Seoul police chief Huh Joon-young told reporters initial investigations had implicated the suspect in 15 cases of murder committed in less than a year. The victims were mainly women, but also included elderly people from rich districts of the capital.

He said the suspect, Yoo Young-chul, had confessed to the crime spree, which had apparently been motivated by a hatred for women and the rich.

?Yoo felt hatred towards women after getting divorced and also believed poverty was the reason for his difficulties?, Huh said. YTN Television showed a handcuffed Yoo, wearing a yellow raincoat, with his face shielded by a baseball cap and a blue mask, nodding when reporters asked him if he had killed the victims. Yoo, released from prison last September after serving time for robbery and rape, is suspected of killing an elderly college professor and his wife in an affluent Seoul district in the same month, the police statement said.

The suspect is believed to have then shifted focus to target women working as masseuses, who usually offer sex services in South Korea, after his girlfriend turned down a marriage proposal early this year, police said. He is suspected of carrying out attacks on women from March to July, police said.

Police arrested Yoo early on Thursday during a search for a missing woman. The suspect had made an appointment to meet another masseuse when he was detained, police said. Yoo, who suffers from epilepsy, broke free and escaped when police unlocked his handcuffs, fearing he was about to have a seizure, but was re-arrested on Friday, Yonhap said. Police said he was the father of an 11-year-old boy.

Investigators have unearthed the bodies of 11 women buried in shallow graves near a temple in northern Seoul, close to several major universities and the studio flat Yoo rented. YTN Television showed footage of investigators unearthing several plastic bags apparently containing body parts. The suspect stood by watching as the rain streamed down. The women?s bodies had each been cut up into more than a dozen pieces, Yonhap said.

Police said in a statement Yoo is believed to have invited the women to his room and beaten them to death with a hammer after having sex with them. ?I think I heard sounds of fighting from his room about a month ago. I also heard a breaking sound from his bathroom?, Yonhap quoted a neighbour of Yoo as saying. Police said the elderly victims had also been killed with a hammer in their homes, and in one instance the victim?s home was set on fire. In one case, Yonhap said a 7-month-old baby had been left untouched at a crime scene where two elderly people were killed.

Handcuffs and fake police identification were also displayed, which Yohap said were believed to have been used to trick victims.

Rhee SO-EUI