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German police are investigating the deaths of five people, three of which were found in a rural Bavarian hotel impaled by crossbow bolts.

A room maid discovered the bodies in a room alongside two crossbows.

The relationship between the three victims - a man aged 53 and two women aged 30 and 33 - remains unclear.

Police found the bodies of two more women when searching the home of the 30-year-old in northern Germany, officials said on Monday.

Police said they are investigating "possible connections" between the hotel deaths and the two bodies found at the home in the town of Gifhorn.

The hotel stands by the Ilz river near Passau, about 650km (400 miles) to the south.

An autopsy on the three bodies is scheduled to begin on Monday.

Another hotel guest, who was staying in the hotel for a short break, told local newspaper Passauer Neue Presse that it had been a "completely quiet night".

The hotel manager said the three dead, who were all German, had planned to stay for three nights but had not ordered breakfast.

It has been established that the man and 33-year-old woman were resident in Rhineland-Palatinate state, western Germany.

Their room had a double bed and a single bed. , the man and 33-year-old woman were found lying hand-in-hand on the bed, shot with bolts to the head and chest; the other woman was lying in a pool of blood on the floor, with a bolt through the chest.

Police have seized a white pickup truck, parked outside, which has stickers reportedly linked to a hunting club. It was registered in Westerwald, Rhineland-Palatinate.

A hotel guest said the man had a long white beard and the women were dressed in black, and described them as "strange".

On arrival on Friday evening they simply wished other guests a "good evening", then went upstairs to their second-floor room with bottles of water and Coca-Cola, said the guest, .