A nurse has gone on trial accused of murdering four elderly care home patients with insulin.

Rahiied A., 23, is charged with attempting to kill another eight residents at various care homes in the Rotterdam area. He was originally charged with six murders and six incidences of attempted murder.

The case came to light in 2017 when a woman in a nursing home in Puttershoek fell ill. Doctors who examined her in hospital found an unusually high level of insulin in her blood. A month earlier another woman in the home had died when insulin was wrongly administered.

All the care homes involved had been criticised by inspectors for shortcomings in personnel, staff expertise and medicine safety.

A. was convicted in August 2017 of stealing several thousand euros from an elderly woman. He was dismissed from the nursing home where he was working but was able to find work as temporary nursing cover in other institutions.

The trial at the district court in Rotterdam is expected to last eight days.