A suspected serial killer in Kenya has escaped from custody, prompting a manhunt, police say.

In July police said Collins Jumaisi Khalusha had confessed to the murders of 42 women, including his wife, since 2022.

Mr Khalusha's lawyer denied the claim, saying his client had been tortured to confess.

He had been held at a police station since being arrested in July, but on Tuesday authorities said Mr Khalusha and 12 others escaped by cutting through a wire mesh roof and scaling a perimeter wall.

An incident report from the station says police discovered the detainees were missing at 05:00 local time (03:00 GMT) when officers were serving breakfast.

The 12 individuals who fled alongside Mr Khalusha were Eritrean nationals detained for entering the country illegally, the police said.

Mr Khalusha, aged 33, was detained following the discovery of nine mutilated bodies at an abandoned quarry in the capital, Nairobi.

The victims were aged between 18 and 30 and were all killed in the same way, according to the police.

There murders sparked shock and outrage. Many questioned how 42 people could be murdered in the space of two years without police noticing and also how officers failed to detect that bodies were being left in a quarry around 100m (109 yards) from a police station.

Kenya's police watchdog launched an investigation to establish whether the police were linked to the killings, following “widespread allegations of police involvement in unlawful arrests [and] abductions”.

It has not yet released its findings.

Police in Kenya have been accused of scores of human rights abuses in the past - and the force is currently under investigation over deaths and abductions following recent anti-government protests.

At the time of Mr Khalusha's arrest, Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) chief Mohamed Amin said: "It is crystallising that we are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for human life, who has no respect and dignity."

Mr Khalusha's lawyer, John Maina Ndegwa, told the BBC in July: "He says he was strangled to confess. You could tell he was in distress, terrified and in anguish."

The suspect appeared in a court in Nairobi on Friday, when the magistrate ordered him to be held for a further 30 days so that police could complete their investigations, news agency AFP reported.

The discovery of the dismembered bodies came as the country was still shaken from the so-called Shakahola forest massacre, where more than 400 bodies were found in mass graves near the Indian Ocean coast.

Cult leader Paul Mackenzie had allegedly encouraged his followers to starve themselves in order to "go see Jesus".

He has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.