An accused serial rapist on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list has been killed in a police shootout at a hotel in North Carolina.

Greg Alyn Carlson, 47, died on Wednesday morning after police and FBI agents acting on a tip closed in on the Woodspring Suites in Apex, on the southwestern outskirts of Raleigh.

Officials said that when authorities closed in, an armed Carlson resisted, and officers were forced to open fire, shooting and killing him. Positive identification of the body is still pending the coroner's examination, according to police.

The FBI has described Carlson as a 'hot prowl rapist,' saying that he broke into women's homes while they were sleeping and raped them.

Greg Alyn Carlson, 47, died in a shootout with police on Wednesday in North Carolina. He is seen above in photos from 2014 (left) and during his arrest in 2017 (right)

Carlson was arrested in Los Angeles in September 2017 on charges of burglary, assault with intent to commit rape and assault with a deadly weapon.

After posting a $1million bond that was secured by his mother's home, Carlson fled to a family home in South Carolina.

After stealing a gun in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, he again fled in a rental car with a bundle of cash.

Police were hot on his trail on November 22, 2017, when he led cops on a wild car pursuit in Hoover, Alabama.

Action on a tip, police and FBI agents converged on the Woodspring Suites in Apex (above), where they found an armed Carlson and shot him dead

But as the pursuit reached high speeds, police were forced to terminate it for safety fears, and Carlson slipped away.

He was later seen in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 28, 2017, and in Daytona Beach, Florida, on November 30, 2017.

A federal arrest warrant was issued in the United States District Court, Central District of California, on December 12, 2017, and Carlson was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Carlson was added to the 10 Most Wanted in September 2018.

The FBI suspected that Carlson was behind a number of rapes in the Los Angeles area.