A 19-year-old man is being questioned on suspicion that he was involved in the murder of a British Indian schoolgirl as she walked home along an unlit riverside footpath.
The body of Asha Muneer, 18, was discovered lying next to River Kennet in Reading, Berkshire, by a jogger on Monday night, The Mirror reported.
Thames Valley police officers arrested the suspect shortly after 10 pm on Tuesday from an address in the town.
He is being held at Loddon Valley police station.
A postmortem examination carried out at a local hospital revealed that Muneer, a pupil at Highdown School in Caversham, Reading, had died of multiple stab wounds.
Relatives at her home in the Whitley area of Reading were too distraught to speak about her death.
The teenager was found on the footpath, near Madejski football stadium, at 8.30 pm on Monday with her handbag lying nearby.
She is thought to have left work at Laura Ashley, on the Brunel Retail Park, more than two hours earlier, when it closed at 6 pm.
Detective Superintendent Karen Trego of the Thames Valley Police said, "We continue to keep an open mind as to the motive for Asha's death. I appreciate that this incident is of great concern for the Reading community and I would like to reassure them that a team of detectives working on the investigation are pursuing a number of lines of inquiry."
A spokeswoman for Laura Ashley described the death as "shocking" and that the teenager's friends at the store, located on the outskirts of Reading, were devastated.
The footpath, which passes under the A33 dual carriageway, is popular with fishermen, cyclists, joggers and dog walkers during daylight hours.
© 2024 Rediff.com -