A Russian court has sanctioned the detention of a former police officer who is suspected of sexually assaulting and killing 25 women, RIA Novosti reported.

The 48-year-old man has been formally accused of murdering just three women. The other deaths - which occurred between 1994 and 2000 - are currently being investigated, the court in the city of Angarsk, near Lake Baikal, said in a press release.

The man, who resigned from the police force in 1998, was held in Vladivostok.

The women were aged between 19 and 28, and most were believed to be drunk at the time of the crime, police said.