Police arrest man in French double murder

By Jennifer Hill

LONDON (Reuters) - Police arrested a man on Saturday in connection with the macabre murder of two French students who were bound and stabbed repeatedly in a case which has shocked the city.

French newspapers said the brutal double murder last Sunday highlighted the knife culture of a city suffering from a spate of fatal teen street stabbings this year.

The victims, both 23, were stabbed scores of times at an apartment in New Cross, southeast London which was then set ablaze in what police said was one of the most "frenzied, brutal and horrific" murders investigated by Scotland Yard.

Laurent Bonomo was stabbed about 200 times, with up to 80 wounds after he was dead. Gabriel Ferez was knifed 50 times.

Police arrested a 21-year-old man in the early hours of Saturday in southeast London and he was taken into custody at a local police station.

No further details about the man were released.

The murders grabbed headlines in France with daily tabloid France-Soir saying London was becoming one of Europe's most dangerous cities. Another paper, Liberation, said the murders were "the latest examples of a culture of stabbings in London".

A spate of 18 fatal stabbings of teenagers in London has shocked the city with new Mayor Boris Johnson vowing to make the capital a safer place and police expanding a knife crime unit.