Uruguay nurses charged over dozens of patient deaths

Two male nurses face murder charges, and a female nurse with covering up the crime, in Uruguay's capital Montevideo after admitting to killing dozens of patients over several years in two hospitals.

According to MSNBC, most of the victims were not terminally ill and their deaths were "unexpected," despite the accused men saying that they had acted out of compassion to alleviate suffering.

It is still unclear how many victims there are.

Despite similarities in the case, a judge said that there is no evidence of a connection between the two men despite working in the same hospital.

SAPA said the suspects, aged 39 and 46, had already confessed to the murder of over a dozen patients, having injected them with morphine or air which led to their death within minutes.

"My client is fully conscious of his actions. He fully confessed in front of the judge (and) prosecutor, and his defense is that he did it out of mercy," said Ines Massiotti, one of the alleged perpetrator's lawyers, to CNN.

The police had been investigating the deaths for weeks after a tip from a worker at one of the hospitals.

A woman, who was reported to be another nurse and possibly the wife of one of the suspects, was also charged for covering up the crime and not coming forward.