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A body found in a suitcase in a toxic lake in Cyprus is believed to be that of a missing eight-year-old girl who - along with her mum - was allegedly murdered by a serial killer.

The child's body found on Sunday was in an advanced state of decomposition when officers retrieved the submerged suitcase and opened it.

It is believed to be Elena Natalia Bunea, and the discovery came after a body believed to belong to her mother, Livia Florentina Bunea, 36, was found in a suitcase in the same lake on April 28, according to local reports.

Police - who have arrested a suspected serial killer, a former army captain - returned to the lake on Monday to look for a third suitcase which may contain the remains of one of seven victims.

(Image: CEN)

The suspect, a 35-year-old career military officer named as Nicos Metaxas, is alleged to have preyed on migrant women and their daughters for almost three years without detection, meeting his adult victims online.

He has been in custody since late last month and allegedly confessed to killing five women and two girls in a case that has shocked the Eastern Mediterranean island.

Most were employed as housekeepers on the island, and disappeared between September 2016 and July to August 2018.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Officers have been using state-of-the-art sonar and a robotic camera to scour the man-made Mitsero Red Lake, west of the capital Nicosia.

There are fears at least one more victim will be found in the water in the bowl of an abandoned copper mine.

Divers were seen preparing to enter the lake just before 12pm on Monday after using sonar and the camera to look for objects that could be related to the case, the Cyprus Mail reported.

(Image: CEN)

The suspect is alleged to have confessed and told detectives that he threw three of his seven victims into the water.

They are Romanian mother and daughter Ms Bunea and Elena, who were last seen alive in September 2016, and 30-year-old Maricar Valdez Arquiola from the Philippines, who went missing in December 2017.

The body found on Sunday was fully clothed and that of a child, according to reports.

Five bodies have been recovered so far.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

If the body found on Sunday is that of Elena, those still yet to be found are Ms Arquiola, 31, and six-year-old Sierra, whose mother, Mary Rose Tiburcio, 39, also from the Philippines, was discovered dead.

Tourists accidentally found her body in a mine shaft flooded by heavy rain on April 14.

The suspect is alleged to have told police he tossed Sierra's body into Memi lake in Xyliatos, but searches have found nothing so far.

The mother and daughter vanished in May 2018.

(Image: CEN)

Arian Palanas Lozano, 28, who like Ms Tiburcio, 38, and Ms Arquiola was a domestic worker, was also killed, along with a woman from Nepal.

It recently emerged that a YouTuber may have inadvertently captured video of one of the suitcases in the Red Lake.

The video shows what appears to be a suitcase in the water, with the American tourist saying: "I just feel death in the air."

The suspect is also being investigated on suspicion of raping a woman he photographed as a model.

(Image: CEN)

He allegedly recorded mobile phone video of himself raping the 19-year-old woman in his car just outside Nicosia in 2017.

The woman reported the incident to the suspect's wife.

Protesters have accused police of failing properly to investigate the victims' disappearances because they were migrants.

Several victims had been reported missing.

Facing criticism, police have launched an inquiry to determine whether there were any failings or wrongdoing on their part.

The police chief has been sacked and the justice minister has resigned.

The killings have triggered outrage and horror in Cyprus, where the cases appear to be the worst peacetime atrocities against women in living memory.

The suspect was remanded in custody on Sunday.