DNA Test Leads Police To China's 'Ripper'

Police say they have caught China's "Jack The Ripper," who killed 11 young women and girls between 1988 and 2002.

Gao Chengyong, 52, was arrested at the grocery store he runs with his wife in the northwest province of Gansu, according to China Daily.

The paper said he has confessed to the 11 notorious murders in Gansu and the neighbouring Inner Mongolia region.

Gao is alleged to have targeted young women wearing red during a 14-year killing spree, following them home to rape and kill them.

Some women had their throats cut and reproductive organs removed, according to reports. The youngest victim was eight years old.

Police first linked all 11 crimes in 2004, and said at the time: "The suspect has a sexual perversion and hates women. He's reclusive and unsociable, but patient."

Gao was tracked down after a relative was arrested and his DNA was collected and tested.

Police said the DNA suggested that the killer was a relation, and after Gao's DNA was taken it allegedly matched that collected at the crime scenes.

His son told local media that his father had experienced "bitter suffering" in his youth, failing to become a pilot for "political reasons".

Acquaintances described him as a quiet man, who was emotionally detached from his family.

The original Jack the Ripper was a serial killer active in east London in the late Victorian era.

The killer is believed to have murdered five women, but no-one was ever caught.