Three prostitutes have been killed in one day in Italy's capital Rome. The women are two Chinese and one Colombian, the police confirmed when asked on Friday.

It is still unclear who is behind the crime. "It could be a single perpetrator, but this suspicion has not yet been confirmed," said a spokeswoman.

The women's bodies were discovered Thursday in the central bourgeois district of Prati. According to the police, the apartment in which the two Chinese women were found was about 800 meters from the apartment where the Colombian woman was killed. No official information was available on the age of the women.

According to media reports, the porter at the Chinese women's house alerted the police in the morning after he had found one of the victims naked and in a pool of blood in the hallway. The officers then discovered the second woman dead in the apartment.

A few hours later, another emergency call was received to an apartment where the killed Colombian woman was lying. The three women were reportedly stabbed. There was no further information on the background to the crime and possible suspects until Friday morning.