YEKATERINBURG, January 30 - RAPSI. Investigative Committee's Sverdlovsk regional bureau has appealed to the public to help them catch the home invader and serial killer dubbed Volga Strangler, who killed around 30 elderly women in 2011 and 2012. It has offered a reward of RUB 1 million ($33,170) for information that will lead to the killer.

The investigators have established that the Volga Strangler committed around 30 murders in Ufa, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Izhevsk, Yekaterinburg, Perm and other cities in the Volga and Urals federal districts in 2011-2012.

The victims are unmarried women aged over 70, the majority of whom lived in old residential blocks, such as those built in the 1960s, in flats no higher than the third floor. It appears that they opened the door to the man, who claimed to be from a social or a utility service.

The killer is a man aged from 20 to 35, of average height (about 175 cm or 5 ft 9 in), slim but physically fit, with an 'unremarkable' face, with somewhat Asian features. The investigators believe that he is a city resident who grew up in a single-parent family or in an orphanage. He has a high school level of education, a low social status and income, and a criminal record.

The Investigative Committee asks for anyone with any information on this person to come forward by calling 02, or the Interior Ministry Department for the Volga Federal District on 8 (831) 438 20 06, or the Yekaterinburg police on 8 (343) 297 71 85 or 8 (343) 350 66 6