Washington  - Four more bodies have been found at the home of of a convicted rapist in the United States, bringing the total number to 10, media reports said Wednesday.

A search was continuing for further bodies in the garden and house used by Anthony Sowell, 50, who was released from prison in 2005 after serving a 15-year sentence for rape.

Police found the first six bodies at the home in Cleveland, Ohio after they came to arrest him last Thursday on suspicion of committing another violent sex crime.

Two of the bodies were in the living room, two in a cellar and one under the basement stairs. The sixth body was in a grave dug in the garden, where officers found four other victims on Tuesday.

Police also found a skull hidden in a bucket, but it was not immediately clear if this belonged to an eleventh victim.

The first six bodies found were badly decomposed. The victims were all African-American women. Reports said they could have been dead for months or even years.

Initial investigations showed five of the women had been strangled.

Sowell fled when police came to his house, but was captured nearby on Saturday. He was charged Tuesday with five counts of murder, rape and kidnapping.(dpa)