A doctor in Germany has been charged with killing 15 of his patients through use of a cocktail of lethal drugs.

Prosecutors in Berlin have even charged the 40-year-old doctor with setting fire to the homes of some of his victims to cover his tracks.

In total, he allegedly killed 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024, though prosecutors said they believe that number could rise.

The doctor, who has not been named because of strict privacy laws in Germany, has not accepted the charges, prosecutors said.

In addition to the house fires, he is accused of administering anaesthetic and muscle relaxant to his patients without their knowledge or consent.

The relaxant “paralyzed the respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory arrest and death within minutes,” prosecutors said in a statement.

The 40-year-old worked in several German states and the ages of the people whose deaths are being treated as suspicious range from 25 to 94. He also allegedly set fire to the apartments of his alleged victims to cover up the murders on five separate occasions.

The doctor is accused of killing two patients in a single day in July 2024 – a 75-year-old man at his home in central Berlin and a 76-year-old woman in a nearby neighborhood “a few hours later.”

Prosecutors said the doctor tried to set fire to the woman’s home but failed, adding: “When he observed this, he allegedly notified a relative of the woman, claiming he was in front of her apartment and that no one responded when the doorbell rang.”

The doctor was initially suspected of killing four people under his care when he was arrested in August 2024, but investigations have uncovered other suspicious deaths, and more exhumations are planned on possible victims.