London - Two French students found dead in a burning London apartment were subjected to a "frenzied, brutal and horrific attack", police said, admitting that they were at a loss to explain the killings.
The bound and battered bodies of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez were found in the ground-floor bedsit in New Cross, south-east London, on Sunday evening when emergency services were called to the fire and an explosion.
Postmortem examinations discovered they were dead before the fire took hold and died from multiple stab wounds to the head, neck, torso and back, the man leading the double murder hunt told a news conference on Thursday.
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"The extent of the injuries is horrific," Detective Chief Inspector Mick Duthie said. "Everyone working on this case, including myself, has been deeply shocked by what we have seen."
He added: "It was a frenzied, brutal and horrific attack … Both appeared to have been bound during this incident."
As a forensic search of the scene continued, Duthie said the two men, both 23 and biochemists from a university in Clermont-Ferrand, central France, had been on a three-month exchange programme at London's Imperial College.
Described as "brilliant students" by their French university, they arrived in early May and had been due to return at the end of this month.
Duthie appealed for information about a white man seen running from the scene shortly after the explosion, which was caused when an unnamed accelerant found throughout the flat ignited.
Imperial College said it was shocked and saddened at the deaths. "Our immediate thoughts are with their families. Laurent and Gabriel had bright futures ahead of them and it is dreadful that their lives should end so soon," said rector Roy Anderson.
The deaths come amid growing concern about knife crime and gang culture in London, which Conservative mayor Boris Johnson and Metropolitan Police chief Ian Blair have vowed to tackle. - Sapa-AFP
- This article was originally published on page 4 of The Star on July 04, 2008
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