Police in Cyprus are searching a man-made lake for suitcases in which an army officer, who confessed to killing seven foreign women and girls, said he stuffed the bodies of some of his victims.

A police official said on Saturday that remote-control cameras have located a suitcase in the lake, part of a now-abandoned copper mine. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because he's not authorised to disclose details of an ongoing investigation.

The suspect, who has not officially been named, was arrested last week. However, he has been identified in local media as Nicos Metaxas, a 35-year-old Greek Cypriot.

The bodies of the two Filipino women, reported missing in May and August 2018, were found in an abandoned mine shaft this month. 

Police discovered the body of the third woman at an army firing range about 14 km (9 miles) from the mine shaft on Thursday. 

Police sources said the suspect had indicated the location of the third body, and had said the person was "either Indian or Nepali".

Authorities are now searching for the six-year-old daughter of the first victim found, a Romanian mother who disappeared with her eight-year-old child in 2016, and a woman from the Philippines who vanished in December 2017.

Police were combing three different locations west of Nicosia.

A court on Saturday extended the detention of the 35-year-old Cypriot National Guard captain for another eight days.

A team of British detectives is due to arrive on the island on Monday to help with the investigation, police said.

Several hundred people attended a candlelit vigil in Nicosia on Friday evening and observed a minute's silence for the seven victims, all foreign women.

Crimes against women

The main opposition party, the left-wing AKEL, called for the resignation of the justice minister and police chief over their handling of the case.

Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou and Police Chief Zacharias Chrysostomou have said there will be an investigation into any perceived shortcomings.

The case is by far the worst peacetime crime committed against women on the island in living memory.

"These women came here to earn a living, to help their families. They lived away from their families. And the earth swallowed them, nobody was interested," AKEL lawmaker Irene Charalambides said.

"This killer will be judged by the court but the other big question is the criminal indifference shown by the others when the reports first surfaced. I believe, as does my party, that the justice minister and the police chief should resign. They are irrevocably exposed."

One person who did attempt to alert the authorities over the disappearances, a 70-year-old Cypriot citizen, has said his motives were questioned by police.

Several hundred people gathered for Friday's vigil, organised on social media on Orthodox Good Friday which is one of the holiest dates on the Christian calendar.

"We are here ... for our victims. We ask for justice for all these girls that were brutally murdered," said Lissa Jataas, of the OBRERAS Empowered Filipino Migrant Movement in Cyprus. "It is a very devastating time, because we are all just here to work." 

"Nobody deserves this," Jataas said, her voice breaking.