A French forest warden has confessed to another further murders to bring to nine the number of people he has admitted to killing.
Michel Fourniret told French investigators in Belgium yesterday he had killed two French girls, Celine Saison and Mananya Thumpong.
Fourniret (62), has been in custody in Belgium since last year for a separate attempted abduction, but he confessed only this week to killing eight girls and a motorist after his estranged wife denounced him to police. Six of the eight girls were French and two Belgian.
"We have nine confessions out of 10, but all the French cases have been recognised," said Charpenel, who is leading the French inquiry.
A Belgian investigating magistrate has charged Fourniret over the death of a Belgian girl who worked as an au pair in his house about 10 years ago, but Fourniret has denied it, Belgian public prosecutors said.
Saison had disappeared near the French town of Charleville-Mezieres in 2000 and Thumpong a year later in nearby Sedan. Their bodies were discovered in woods in the area.
French and Belgian authorities were due to begin digging in coming days for the corpses of some of Fourniret's victims at a chateau near Sedan which he used to own, after he admitted burying at least two bodies near the property.
Dutch police said yesterday they would contact Belgian authorities to seek new leads on several disappearances. French authorities said they planned to reopen files dating back to the 1970s on disappearances and unsolved killings of young girls near the Franco-Belgian border and across France.