A man has been arrested in connection with the death of Ms Fatima Kama, whose body was found inside a suitcase dumped at Heathrow airport on Saturday, Scotland Yard said last night.
A spokeswoman said the man was arrested at about 10 p.m., but she declined to say where he was held or where he had been taken. She said: "No further details are available to be released at the moment."
The body of Ms Kama (28), who is thought to have been Lebanese, was found in a multi-storey car park at the west London airport. She had been stabbed a number of times, police said.
Ms Kama had been based in Britain since early summer, and was thought to have been staying in a flat in the Marble Arch area of London. She had been due to fly from terminal three with Air Canada, probably on Sunday. Her body was found in a 3 ft suitcase near stairs on the third level of the car park.
She was last seen alive at 2 p.m. on Saturday. When she did not arrive in Montreal her relatives contacted members of her family in London. They then contacted police following the publicity surrounding the discovery of her body. Asked if she was on holiday in London or was working in the city, a Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We are not saying anything about that."
Earlier, the detective leading the murder investigation, Det Chief Insp Richard Taber, told a Scotland Yard press conference that Ms Kama was stabbed at least 10 times, but there was no sign of sexual abuse. Police also released an artist's impression of Ms Kama, who had auburn hair, brown eyes and was wearing pink nail varnish on her fingers and toes.
"It's an extremely violent attack. This woman has been subjected to multiple stab wounds and has died as a result of them. Those that love and care about her don't know what has happened to her. To have your loved one bundled ignominiously into the suitcase and callously abandoned in a car-park, I think, is awful. We know that she wasn't killed at the location. We're working on the theory that she was brought into the car-park," Mr Taber said.
Police now plan to trace up to 1,500 drivers who were in the carpark at the time the suitcase was dumped on Saturday night and were seen on security cameras. However, they believe the person who left the suitcase behind entered and left the car-park, perhaps in a car, in an area not covered by the security cameras.
Passengers travelling on the flight Ms Kama should have taken will be traced, and police will also face the lengthy task of trying to identify every passenger that took a flight from Terminal 3 on Saturday. The size of the task is highlighted by the fact that up to 200 flights leave the terminal every day bound for Australia, Asia, the US and the Far East.
Ms Kama's body was discovered after three women noticed the suitcase on a luggage trolley and alerted officials. A member of the airport's security staff took it away, and Ms Kama's body was found inside, curled up in the foetal position.
Ms Kama (28) had been staying in Britain since earlier this summer and had visited Lebanon during her stay. She had returned to London nine days ago, possibly to a rented flat in the Marble Arch area, which is popular with the Arab community.