Man arrested in hunt for 'night stalker'

London: Detectives hunting one of the most prolific sex offenders in British crime history say they have made a "significant" arrest almost two decades after the serial rapist first struck.

A 52-year-old married man was arrested at his home in London in the early hours of Sunday morning and was being held at an undisclosed police station by Scotland Yard.

He will be questioned about attacks on more than 108 elderly people, aged between 68 and 88, which were carried out in southeast London and date back to the early 1990s.

The investigation into the series of attacks, which involved rapes and sexual assaults, is the largest operation in the Metropolitan police's recent past.

It has involved thousands of police hours, specialist ancestral DNA analysis, and DNA tests on more than 2,000 individuals.

The attacker first struck in 1992 when an 84-year-old woman was raped after a break-in at the flat where she lived alone in the Shirley area of Croydon. A DNA sample was recovered, but no match existed on the then relatively small database. His DNA was recovered again five years later.

It is understood a fast moving police operation in the early hours of Sunday morning involved a call to scientists for an express DNA test. The test was carried out in a matter of hours and the result was available to detectives at 11am. Sources refused to discuss the result, but a police source indicated the arrest was "significant."

The development came after a surveillance operation which began two weeks ago and the man is understood to have been arrested in Brockley, southeast London, where he lives, according to police sources.

The sex offender, dubbed the "night stalker," is thought to have been active as recently as last June when two women, aged 91 and 93, were disturbed by an intruder who matched his description.

Since he began his series of offences, three of his victims have died. Police believe the victims may number more than 108, because many elderly women may have been afraid or embarrassed to come forward and describe the attacks. Although most victims have been women, police said they included 10 elderly men, one of whom was sexually attacked.