Italian nurse accused of 13 murders in Piombino Published duration 31 March 2016

image copyright Italian police image caption Police had been monitoring the hospital for several months

A registered nurse has been arrested in Italy on suspicion of murdering 13 patients, in a case described as "the killer on the ward", police say.

The woman had been working in the anaesthesia and intensive care unit at a hospital in the small coastal town of Piombino in Tuscany.

The patients were killed in 2014 and 2015 with a drug administered by drip or injection, Italian media say.

Police are said to have monitored the suspect for several months.

According to Ansa news agency, the woman in custody is aged 55 and has lived in Tuscany since the 1980s. She was detained late on Wednesday by Italy's NAS police unit, which specialises in health and drugs.

The victims were mainly elderly people with a variety of illnesses.

Italians have already been shocked by the case of another nurse, who was jailed for life earlier this month.

Daniele Poggiali, 44, was found guilty of injecting a 78-year-old patient with a lethal solution of potassium chloride at a hospital in Ravenna in north-eastern Italy.

She is also suspected of killing other patients. Pictures have emerged of her grinning beside the bodies of dead patients.