We consider the multiple ellipses detection problem on the basis of a data points set coming from a number of ellipses in the plane not known in advance, whereby an ellipse $E$ is viewed as a Mahalanobis circle with center $S$, radius $r$, and some positive definite matrix $\Sigma$. A very efficient method for solving this problem is proposed. The method uses a modification of the $k$-means algorithm for Mahalanobis-circle centers. The initial approximation consists of the set of circles whose centers are determined...