French serial murder suspect held

BRITISH police were last night holding a man in connection with a series of horrific killings of young women in Paris.

The man was arrested by the Metropolitan Police at a central London address yesterday after a tip-off from police in France. He was being held at a police station in central London on suspicion of having entered the country illegally.

Tests were being performed to establish whether the man matched the genetic profile of the so-called tueur de l'est - the Killer of the East - a man suspected of torturing, raping and murdering up to seven young women in the eastern part of Paris between 1991 and November of last year. A senior French police officer was travelling to London last night to interview the suspect.

Last night, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police, said: "Officers from Scotland Yard arrested a man at an address in central London [on Tuesday] on behalf of the French authorities. He is currently being held a police station in central London for offences under the Immigration and Nationalities Act of 1971."

French police have been heavily criticised by the press and by families of the victims for failing to make an earlier connection between a rash of unsolved killings of young women in the Republique and Bastille areas of the capital in recent years. It was only after the death of a 25-year- old secretary last November that police announced that a serial killer was at large.

Three killings and one assault and attempted murder have now been definitely established by DNA tests as the work of a single killer. Four other deaths are being treated as part of the same inquiry.

In all cases, the single women living alone were attacked in their homes, tied up and raped before their throats were cut. In 1995 one woman managed to escape from an attacker, who was later confirmed by DNA tests to have been involved in at least three of the killings. She described him as being about 5ft 10in tall, well-built and of North African appearance and speaking perfect, unaccented French.