HONG KONG - The tenant of the flat directly below the apartment where a British banker allegedly killed two women has terminated the lease, apparently spooked by the grisly murders, Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News reported on Monday.

Citing sources, the Chinese-language newspaper said the tenant, who was not identified, had decided to forfeit a total of HK$44,700 (S$7,423) in penalties rather than move into the luxury 555-square-foot (51.5-square-metre) flat in J Residence, the condominium in the Wanchai district on Hong Kong Island popular with expatriates.

The tenant, a foreigner, had signed the lease for HK$29,800 a month just a week before the murders were discovered, Ming Pao said.

Rurik Jutting, a 29-year-old securities trader who until recently worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, had called police on Saturday to his 31st-storey apartment in J Residence where investigators found a naked woman with knife wounds to her neck and buttocks in the living room, as well as the decaying corpse of another woman inside a suitcase on the balcony, Agence France-Presse reported.

Jutting is alleged to have killed one of the women on October 27 and the other on November 1 at his flat, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) said.

He was charged with the two murders in Hong Kong's Eastern Court on Monday. The lawyer representing Jutting said his client was willing to cooperate with the police, RTHK said.