A top Home Office pathologist was preparing tonight to carry out post-mortems on the bodies of the two latest victims of a Suffolk serial killer thought to have murdered five Ipswich prostitutes.

Police believe the two women are the sex workers Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, but their formal identification has been delayed as forensic teams painstakingly comb the wasteland where the bodies were found yesterday, 150 yards apart.

As darkness fell, a private ambulance removed the body of one of the women, taking it for examination at Ipswich hospital by Dr Nat Carey, who also performed post-mortems on Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the two schoolgirls killed in Soham by Ian Huntley in 2002.

Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull, who is leading the inquiry, said that families of the two women had been "forewarned to expect the worst". He said it was important that Dr Carey carry out the post-mortems since he also examined the bodies of the first three victims.

The Suffolk Police team today began sifting through a "vast volume of information" from more than 2,000 phone calls from members of the public.

All day today, the two bodies remained where they were found just yards from the A14, although they were covered by two white tents to protect them from the weather.

Several scenes-of-crime officers dressing in white forensic suits stood outside each tent inside a large police cordon.

Mr Gull said earlier today: "In some respects it seems callous to leave the bodies in the open like this. We are trying to provide as much evidence as possible. They need to remain there.

"We need to find out who is responsible and the best way we can do that is by taking our time."

Soil samples and vegetation were taken from the scene for forensic examination to see if they had come from another area, brought by the killer, as detectives tried to piece together possible clues.

Mr Gull used a press conference this morning to repeat his appeal for anyone with information to contact police.

He said that between 6am and 11pm yesterday, 2,199 phone calls were made to Suffolk Police as part of the largest murder investigation in its history.

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