Students' murder suspect arrested

Daniel Sonnex, 23, was held at an address in Peckham, south east London, at about 6.30pm on Thursday, a spokeswoman said.

The Yard had issued an alert to find the man less than an hour before.

The badly-burned bodies of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez were found after an explosion at a rented bedsit in New Cross, south London, on June 29.

Mr Bonomo had been stabbed nearly 200 times while Mr Ferez had suffered nearly 50 knife wounds.

Nigel Farmer, 33, of no fixed address, appeared at Greenwich Magistrates' Court earlier on Thursday accused of the double murder. Farmer, who is also accused of arson and attempting to pervert the course of justice, was remanded in custody until October 16 when he will appear at the Old Bailey.

A 35-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman who were arrested yesterday in Streatham, south London, remain in police custody.

Mr Bonomo and Mr Ferez were in the second year of masters degrees at the Clermont-Ferrand Polytech in the Auvergne region of central France.

Both had been selected for the Undergraduate Opportunities for Research Programme, a three-month project on DNA, in the life sciences department at Imperial College, London.

Inquests into their deaths were opened and adjourned on Tuesday at Southwark Coroner's Court which heard they had died from multiple stab wounds.