Parents of murdered French student appeal to killer

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - The parents of one of the two French students murdered in London a week ago in a frenzied knife attack appealed on Sunday for the killer to come forward and said they would not rest until the guilty party was found.

Bio-engineering students Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were bound, gagged and repeatedly stabbed in Bonomo's south London apartment in what police said were the most "frenzied, brutal and horrific" murders they had seen.

French newspapers said the shocking murders highlighted how dangerous the city had become after a spate of street teen stabbings this year that has prompted the mayor to make it a priority and police to expand a specialist knife crime squad.

"We plead with you to turn yourselves in to the police. You will not be able to live in hiding forever," Ferez' parents Francoise and Olivier said in a statement.

"You may be scared and feel like a coward, but you must recognise this terrible mistake you made. Rest assured that we will not leave you in peace."

Late on Sunday police issued a computer-generated likeness of a man seen running away from near the apartment on the night of the murders.

Witnesses described him as white, aged between 30 and 40, of slim build and wearing a light coloured baseball cap, dark top, blue jeans and white trainers.

Mick Duthie, the man leading the police inquiry, urged that anyone who may have seen something to come forward.