FRANCE: A French forest warden dubbed by the media as "the ogre of the Ardennes" has confessed to another two murders, bringing to nine the number of people he has admitted to killing.
Michel Fourniret told French investigators in Belgium late on Thursday he had killed two French girls, Celine Saison and Mananya Thumpong, according to Mr Yves Charpenel, state prosecutor in the northern French city of Reims.
Mr 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 Mr Charpenel, who is leading the French inquiry.
A Belgian investigating magistrate has charged Mr Fourniret over the death of a Belgian girl who worked as an au pair in his house about 10 years ago, but he has denied it, Belgian public prosecutors said.
Celine Saison had disappeared near the French town of Charleville-Mezieres in 2000 and Mananya 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 Mr 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 on Thursday 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.
The French prosecutor is to open a formal inquiry into Mr Fourniret for abduction, rape and murder. He was methodical in his confession and showed no sign of emotional strain, Charpenel said.
"He is not cracking. He thinks a lot about his statements and methodically chooses what he is going to say."
Other victims included Elisabeth Brichet (12), whom he confessed to kidnapping, raping and strangling to death in 1989. Her body has yet to be found.
It is little more than a week since Belgium's most notorious criminal, Marc Dutroux, was jailed for life for kidnapping and raping six girls and killing four of them.