Police probe arrest link to graduate murders

Police investigating the murder of two Chinese graduates said they were probing a possible link to a man arrested today for violent burglary.

Xi Zhou and her boyfriend Zhen Xing Yang, both 25, were found dead in their flat in Newcastle's West End after suffering severe head injuries.

Police arrested a man today in the Shieldfield area of the city on suspicion of aggravated burglary.

At a news conference today, Detective Superintendent Steve Wade said: "There has been a man arrested for burglary this morning at an address in Shieldfield.

"That man is currently detained at Pilgrim Street police station.

"He was not arrested in connection with the murder investigation.

"Officers from the Major Investigation team are looking into the circumstances of that burglary and his arrest.

"At this stage there is no evidence to link it to the murder, but you never say never in this business."

Northumbria Police released CCTV images of Ms Zhou, known as Cici, leaving Wagamama's restaurant in the city centre on Thursday after she finished a waitressing shift.

She got on a bus to the home she shared with her boyfriend, and was last seen on camera a couple of hundred yards from her house.

A friend made the gruesome discovery of her body in a bedroom, and contacted police who found her boyfriend dead in another bedroom.