The 25-year-old suspect also confessed to abducting and raping an 18-year-old woman from Chemnitz on December 20, and attacking a third one on December 24, who managed to escape, Upper Austria police chief Alois Lissl told the Austria Press Agency after talks with his German counterparts.

The man, who lives in Biberbach in Lower Austria, gave himself up to police in Berlin on Wednesday, after the media reported widely about the latest case. According to police, he snatched his 16-year-old victim as she headed to work before dawn in the German town of Regensburg on December 24, forcing her into the trunk of his car by threatening her with a knife. He then drove across the border to Austria where he raped her before

letting her go.

Police initially voiced doubts about the young woman’s story but they have since found the suspect’s knife and located where she was raped, Lissl said.

The suspect apparently also forced his first victim into his car trunk on December 20 before raping her and throwing her off a bridge into a river. The 18-year-old survived the 10-metre (32.8-foot) fall with serious injuries, Lissl added.