They are looking for a total of 16 victims who they describe as male and probably young and homeless.

Scotland Yard has confirmed the remains of three men have been found on the premises of a terraced house in Muswell Hill, north London.

A police spokesman has named one of the dead men as Stephen Neil Sinclair, 20, of no fixed address.

A man has been arrested in connection with the bodies and is expected to be charged with murder tomorrow.

Gruesome discovery

Plumber Michael Cottran alerted the police yesterday (Wednesday) after realising the 10 inch blockage he had discovered in the drain at 23 Cranley Gardens was some kind of flesh.

New occupants of the Muswell Hill address called him out the day before to investigate a smell coming from their drain.

Mr Cottran made the gruesome discovery under a manhole cover outside the house when it was too dark to identify it properly.

Pathologist Professor David Bowen examined the tissue as a team of six police officers began searching the blue and white painted house and questioning its occupants and their neighbours.

They found two human heads inside the property and took one man away for further questioning from a neighbouring house.

The investigation - headed by Detective Chief Superintendent Geoffrey Chambers - is to be extended to 195 Melrose Avenue, Cricklewood, where police expect to find another 13 bodies.

The semi-detached house, in north-west London, was only converted into two flats last year - from single rooms and bedsitters - when builders described it as virtually derelict.

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