Russian police are desperately hunting a group of serial killers who have murdered at least ten people after laying razor-sharp spikes across secluded roads to stop their cars.

The criminals, dubbed the 'lonely road maniacs', lurk in woodland or forest on the roadside, waiting for their next victim's tyres to be slashed before shooting them dead.

Their motive appears to be purely cold-blooded, since the snipers have not stolen valuables from their victims in the region surrounding Russian capital Moscow.

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Russian police have issued these sketches of a man suspected to be part of the gang which has been shooting people in their cars after slowing them down with spikes in secluded roads on the outskirts of Moscow

However, a criminal psychologist linked to the case said the killers have a 'fetish' of taking the driving licenses of their victims while leaving bank cards and cash untouched.

'Perhaps they like looking at pictures and remembering victims,' said this expert, Mikhail Vinogradov.

The group has been operating for 15 months but until recently police denied the cases were linked and a gang was involved.

Now, however, law enforcement sources admit the same guns were used in all cases, according to newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, and police have issued a warning to take extreme care on remote roads in the sprawling region.

Drivers are told to 'avoid driving Moscow region roads at nights and do not stop under any circumstances', but there is rising panic at the failure to catch the killers.

The first victim Andrei Zorin, 29, was driving with his his 34-year-old girlfriend in his Lada car in the Solnechnogorsky district of Moscow on 12 June 2013, reported the newspaper.

He died from gun shot wounds to his head, while she survived chest wounds after emergency surgery.

As in other cases, the killers lurked in woodland or forest on the roadside.

Police and media gather around the corpse of Oleg Tolmachev as law enforcers struggle to track down the criminals

The local policeman is among at least ten people murdered by the group with scores more injured

Alexey Tysganov ran from his car when he realised his tyres had been slashed but the 53-year-old was gunned down



Months later, in September, the bullet-riddled body of a 50-year-old man was discovered in a Land Cruiser.

In November a 37-year-old man and two youths, on their way to buy cannabis, were also killed.

In another case, a man was shot from his bike with his dog running beside him. It is thought the victim, Vladimir Kirilyuk, disturbed the gang as they lay spikes on the road.

Later a couple in their sixties were killed with a sawn off Makarov rifle - one of three guns linked to the group.

Another man and wife were killed in May. They had iPads, phones and money inside their vehicle though none was stolen.

On 4 June, local policeman Oleg Tolmachev was shot in Novo-Peredelkino village in Moscow region. Footage obtained from Russian television shows shocked by-standers and policeman gathering in the street next to his body.

Weeks later, 53-year-old Alexey Tysganov ran from his car when it his the spikes, but was gunned down.

Two more victims were targeted in August, though one was able to flee the scene.

The driver, a man called Ivan, said: ' It was daylight, about 6 pm, and I was driving to my dacha (country house) when I got in this trap with my tyres sliced.

'I decided not to stop and drove further knowing road police post was very close.

'Then I heard a sound behind me and saw the back window was broken.

'The policemen said somebody shot at me from the forest.'

A map of Moscow region shows how widespread the violence has been. Police are encouraging motorists to avoid driving on secluded roads at night

The deaths of four railway workers sitting in an abandoned carriage is also linked to the same gang but did not involve a road killing.

'We have not managed to figure out type of the car criminals drive,' a law enforcement source said.

'Most likely they leave it as a distance from where they throw the spikes on the road. They wait for a victim in the woods near the road.

'The attack lasts for two or three minutes, never longer. Then they disappear in the woods.

'There is a version, too, that they leave their vehicle either on a track in the woods or on the opposite side of the road, so that when the body is found they are already moving with the traffic in the opposite direction.'

Criminal psychologist Vinogradov, reportedly drafted in by the Russian Investigative Committee to assist on the case, said: 'Judging by their behaviour these people either former military men, or ex-policemen.

'You can see they were trained.

'They are aged from 30 to 40 years old and they are at their peak physically.

'There is a leader in the gang, two others are his aides. Judging by the character of their attacks I can say that these people love killing, their motivation is that of a maniac.'

He believes this is an unusual but not unique case of a gang of 'serial killing maniacs'.

He believes that the killings could be a warped revenge for loved ones of the killers who died on the road, but many theories remain under investigation.

The Investigative Committee has declined to give details of the probe.

'Any single piece of information can help the criminals,' said spokesman Vladimir Markin.