Police Seek Victims of Alleged Serial Killer

Scores of police combed an industrial area in northern Germany on Tuesday searching for victims of what they fear could be the country's worst serial killer in decades. The hunt began after an inmate incarcerated with the suspect, Marc Hoffmann, told authorities that Hoffmann had admitted killing six people, other than the two children he is jailed for murdering. Hoffmann, 31, was arrested in December 2004 after confessing to killing two eight-year-old children. Two groups of about 100 officers each were involved in the search for bodies near the northern port city of Bremerhaven, said a spokesman, who added that the hunt would continue on Wednesday. The inmate claimed that Hoffman, who is refusing to cooperate with police and prosecutors, had told of killing at least two other children from eastern Germany and two women who were hitch-hiking.