Chinese police have detained two brothers suspected of killing 12 people they robbed and dismembered in a 15-month spree, according to local newspaper report.
Mr Shen Changyin (29) and Shen Changping (21) were dismembering a victim when police acting on a tip-off broke into their hideout in Shijiazhuang, capital of the northern province of Hebei, on Tuesday, the Yanzhao Metropolitan Newssaid.
A woman who had become an accomplice on condition she help lure more victims, was also arrested, the newspaper said. It is reported most of their victims were women working in nightclubs and bath houses
The brothers, villagers from the central province of Henan, face the death sentence if convicted.
The older brother claimed his first victim in 1999 when he stabbed a villager to death for raping the sister of a friend, the newspaper said.
The brothers fled their hometown and went on to rob and murder 11 women in six provinces between June 2003 and last month robbing 120,000 yuan (€11,800).
Chinese newspapers are unrestrained by the contempt of court and libel laws of the West and often quote police confirming guilt charges have been proffered or the case has gone to court.
Last year, China executed one of its worst serial killers in history, a man who murdered 67 people and raped two dozen women over four years.