Johannes M. is accused of killing patients with drug injections (Picture: NF/newsX)

A doctor charged with murdering 15 patients in three years may have killed even more,police fear.

Described as having a ‘lust for murder’,40-year-old Johannes M. was first arrest in Berlin,Germany,last August on suspicion of killing four people.

But the number of alleged victims rose after the bodies of former patients were exhumed and examined.

Johannes M. has now been charged with 15 murders. Another 75 deaths are still under investigation,with five more bodies set to be dug up.

‘He is said to have administered an anesthetic induction agent and then a muscle relaxant to his patients without their knowledge or consent’,a spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office said.

Within minutes,the patients died of respiratory arrest,prosecutors claimed.

On several occasions,Johannes M. allegedly set fires in an attempt to cover the alleged crimes.

One suspected victim was found dead in the apartment which had been on fire (Picture: Berlin Fire Department)

But these alleged attempts at concealment brought scrutiny from police,who investigated the deaths as possibly resulting from arson.

The murders are alleged to have taken place between September 22,2021 and July 24,2024,when the 40-year-old was working as a palliative care doctor in a nursing service in the capital of Germany.

In that role,the doctor would have been tasked with alleviating the pain of seriously ill patients.

He is accused of killing four of them,aged between 72 and 94,in their homes between June 11 and July 24 last year. These were the first four he was alleged of committing.

After the alleged death toll rose,the youngest is believed to have been 25,prosecutors said.

Police fear there could be even more of them than the 15 deaths he has been charged with.

Investigators examined 395 cases in connection with the doctor. Of those,75 remain under investigation separate from these proceedings.