Police in Rome is hunting for a possible serial killer after the bodies of three women were found in two apartments in the upmarket district of Prati, according to a media report.

Two of the women, both sex workers of Chinese nationality believed to be aged between 40 and 50, were found stabbed to death in an apartment on Via Augusto Ribotym, The Guardian reported.

The porter of the building raised an alarm after finding the body of one of the deceased women on the doorstep of the apartment on Thursday morning, while the other body was found inside.

The body of a Colombian woman, identified as Marta Castano Torres, also a sex worker who had been stabbed to death, was found by her sister in a basement apartment on a nearby street, The Guardian reported.

Stab wounds to the throat, chest, and back were found on the bodies of the Chinese women, who are yet to be identified.

A source in the police said investigators are working on the theory that the women were murdered by the same person. Torres, 65, who the Italian press said was working as a sex worker to support her daughter financially, is believed to have been killed before the two other victims.

The killings occurred a few hundred meters from Italy's supreme court, in an elegant neighborhood where in recent years there has been a growth in criminal networks running prostitution businesses out of apartments, The Guardian reported.

The killings have prompted calls for prostitution to become a regulated profession in Italy to protect sex workers. Italy permits street prostitution but organized prostitution and brothels are illegal. (KB/IANS)