A 24-year-old man of Pakistani origin has been charged in Hong Kong Wednesday with three counts of murdering three prostitutes in the past week, the Hong Kong police said.

Nadeem Razaq, 24, who is unemployed, appeared in Fang Ling court of the New Territories Wednesday, but did not immediately enter a plea on three counts of murder, according to a court document.

Police accused Razaq of murdering three sex workers in Yuen Long and Tai Po on March 15 and 17.

Police arrested Razaq on Tuesday after he returned to Hong Kong from the neighboring Macao. Officers said they seized two mobile phones belonging to two of the murdered victims from his belongs when he was arrested.

Four sex workers have been killed in Hong Kong since Saturday and three of the women were believed to have been strangled. All four had been operating out of their own flats.

A police spokesman said Razaq had denied the killing of the fourth prostitute on the Hong Kong island and the police were still investigating whether there might be another suspect involved in the case.

If Razaq was convicted of the killing of three prostitutes, he might face life imprisonment, according to Hong Kong criminal law.

As one of the world's safest major cities, Hong Kong rarely reported murders and other violent crimes.

Under Hong Kong law, prostitution is legal if carried out by one woman operating alone in a single location, the so-called "one-woman brothel." Soliciting for sex is illegal, however.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 20, 2008)