Three arrested over murder of Chinese students
Three men have been arrested on suspicion of murdering Xi Zhou and Zhen Xing Yang
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Thursday, 23, Oct 2008 03:04
Three men have been arrested on suspicion of murdering two Chinese students in Newcastle, reports claim.
Northumbria police confirmed that two men aged 30 and 22 were arrested on suspicion of murder at an address in Morpeth this morning.
A third man aged 33, was also arrested in Newcastle on the same charge.
A police statement said the arrests were part of pre-planned coordinated raids, which saw another 14 people arrested on Thursday.
A woman was arrested at the Morpeth address for assisting an offender, while five men aged 26, 42, 35 and two aged 31 were arrested in Newcastle for conspiracy to commit burglary.
In Newcastle, three women aged 38, 31 and 28 were also arrested for immigration offences while four men aged 27, 30, 25, 29, were arrested for conspiracy to commit burglary.
At an address in County Durham, a 49-year-old man was also arrested for assisting an offender.
All those arrested are Chinese nationals.
The three men arrested on suspicion of murder are in custody at Byker police station, all the others have been taken to Etal Lane.
Detective Superintendent Steve Wade, leading the investigation, said: "As a result of ongoing investigations officers from Northumbria police major incident team together with specialist search officers and scenes of crime officers executed search warrants at addresses in Northumbria and Durham.
"As a result a series of arrests have been made in connection with the murder investigation. Searches at the address are currently being carried out and those arrested are being questioned throughout today. It is early stages and we have a lot of work to do but this is a positive development.
"Both families have been informed of these developments."
The bodies of Xi Zhou and Zhen Xing, both 25, were discovered in their flat on Croydon Road on August 9th.
The Chinese couple were found stabbed to death in their flat, with reports suggesting Mr Zhen was tortured before he died while examinations showed Miss Xi had also been asphyxiated.
Police earlier released CCTV footage of the last sighting of Miss Xi as she made her way home from work on August 7th.