The German Nils Hogel, a medical practitioner, is suspected of at least 84 murders committed in Germany from 2000 to 2005. "Up to now, the Special Investigation Commission has detected 84 murders," said to journalists Johan Kyume, head of the police in northern city of Oldenburg.

The trial against Hogel began this week. He has worked in two hospitals as a health care professional and a nurse. He was detained nine years ago on charges of killing his patients. The suspicion was about 20 people. In a three-year police investigation, it has become clear that the victims are at least four times more.

According to investigators, however, the real number of victims is likely to be many times higher, but it can not be proven because some of the deceased were cremated. "The scale of his crimes leaves us virtually silent and in shock," Kyume said.

The original charges against Nils Hogel were about two killings and three murder attempts, as well as serious bodily injury, at the Delmenhorse Hospital where he worked during his arrest. With the reveal of the real number of his crimes, the police ordered the exhumation of more than 100 people over the past three years and reviewed the hospital files of thousands of patients.