Police identify pair found murdered

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Students Xi Zhou and her boyfriend Zhen Xing Yang, both 25, were found with severe head injuries at a flat in Newcastle's West End on Saturday afternoon.

Northumbria Police said a post-mortem examination revealed the female victim may have been suffocated as well.

The force will reveal more about the murders, which one source said was "gruesome".

The unexplained murders left other Chinese students living in fear. Ishaopeng Wu, 31, said: "I am very shocked, I cannot see if we should live in this area any more."

The mobile communications student, who is a member of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, said: "As Chinese students we do not have any affairs with other people. We are far away from home and we live in a strange area."

Forensic experts wearing white protective suits watched as a silver hatchback was loaded onto a covered police lorry on Saturday night, when the bodies were also removed.

Croydon Road, which is in the heart of a multi-cultural area of terrace streets and is popular with students, was cordoned off.

By coincidence, the flat is a couple of doors away from the former home of a murdered schoolboy.

Wesley Neailey was 11 when he was murdered in 1998 by convicted paedophile Dominic McKilligan. A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: "This is a nice place to live and we have been here for 15 years but seeing all the police activity has brought back memories of Wesley."