"It's not physical cash," said a local government spokeswoman. "It's about making sure that we're doing everything we can so they don't have to go on the streets."

Police identified the fifth victim on Friday and said all five murders were linked. No one has yet been arrested or questioned as a suspect, but police were seeking a number of people to help with their enquiries,

"We know they were all working girls, they knew one another. I think there is likely to be some crossover as far as clients are concerned," said Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull. "There are a number of people of interest to us."

But as police drafted in hundreds of extra officers to help hunt for the killer, prostitutes in Ipswich told how their drug addiction drove them to ignore the risks.

"I'll be dead in 10 years' time anyway," 25-year-old Suzanne told the Daily Mail. "Whether it is through drugs, or at the hands of some sicko, well, it doesn't make much difference. If it happens, it happens."

SUFFOLK STRANGLER

Experts were carrying out toxicology tests on the bodies of two of the victims, Gemma Adams, 25, and Tania Nicol, 19, to see if they were drugged before they were killed, police said, but the test results will not be known for weeks.

"We know these were all drug users, poly drug users, so we need to keep an open mind," Gull told a news conference.

The women may have been drugged, media said, because their bodies showed no obvious signs of injury or struggle.

"There is no significant trauma on any of the five girls, none of them appear to have been subject to serious sexual assault," Gull said. "We know these are working girls; they get into cars voluntarily, that is the nature of their work."

All five were found dumped naked in countryside around Ipswich, in the county of Suffolk, three of them wearing jewelry.

The murderer has been dubbed the Suffolk Strangler, although the precise way all the women died is yet to be established.

Anneli Alderton, 24, was strangled and Paula Clennell, also 24, was killed by "compression to the neck," detectives said.

The fifth victim was identified as Annette Nicholls, 29, last seen on December 5, but a post-mortem was inconclusive.

"These are five young women who have... all got families, some of them have children. That's why were putting... all the preventative measures in to make sure that we don't have another disappearance," she told Sky News Friday.

Police confirmed Thursday that a body found in a woodland near the eastern English town was Paula Clennell, 24, and they removed a second woman's body from the area to conduct post-mortem examinations.

They are expected to identify her as Annette Nicholls, 29. She would be the fifth sex worker to have been killed in less than two weeks.

The three other victims have already been identified as 25-year-old Gemma Adams, 19-year-old Tania Nicol and 24-year-old Anneli Alderton.

The case has evoked one of Britain's most notorious serial killers, east London's elusive Jack the Ripper, who murdered five prostitutes in 1888, as well as the "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered 13 from 1975 to 1980.

Investigators in the normally tranquil town, about 80 miles (130 kilometres) northeast of London, are ploughing through some 5,500 calls from the public and trying to trace the victims' last movements.

More than 300 officers from nine different police forces around Britain have been drafted in to help in the massive manhunt.

In new leads, police confirmed to British newspapers that they were investigating whether the victims had been drugged before being killed, reporting that none of the bodies showed signs of a struggle.

The Guardian daily meanwhile reported that police and local drug workers were paying prostitutes in Ipswich to stay off the streets. The money was being provided by an unidentified charity, it said.

"It's not safe to engage a client or punter at this time," Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Police also reported progress in searching for a man driving a blue BMW, after a local sex worker was quoted by several news outlets as saying she saw Alderton climb into the car last week.

Detectives had interviewed a man fitting that description, but were now searching for the prostitutes who had given the information "so that this man can be eliminated from our inquiries", The Daily Telegraph reported.

Another possible lead came after it also emerged that Clennell had stolen 1,000 pounds (1,490 euros, 1,960 dollars) from a client of hers after they had a falling out, according to the Daily Mirror tabloid.

Clennell's boyfriend, Paul Turner, suggested that the man, whose name he did not know, might be the killer.

"I think I know who killed her," he said, adding: "Maybe this guy had enough of being ripped off and lashed out.... It could be that he got the killing bug or that he wanted to get revenge on every one of them who'd stolen from him."

While the red light district was largely deserted Thursday evening, an AFP reporter said residents had returned to the city centre for Christmas shopping or drinking in local pubs despite the grim backdrop to the festive season.