Two French students stabbed, burnt in UK

By OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT

London

July 3: Two students from France, who were on a were on a short exchange programme at the Imperial College London, were found stabbed to death and then their apartment was set on fire by their assailants.

Twenty-three-year-old Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, who were close friends, were bio-engineering students and had come to London on a three-month placement. They were due to return home later in July after their three-month Imperial College placement.

The police found their tortured and battered bodies in the ground-floor apartment at Sterling gardens, New Cross, southeast London, on Sunday after emergency services were called by neighbours who had reported a fire and an explosion.

Their battered bodied were found after a fire was reported at the apartment on Sunday night.

The police believes that their assailants killed the two friends and then set the apartment on fire to get rid of evidence.

The two scholars were inflicted with 250 injuries by their assailants, many after they were already dead.

Bonomo had been stabbed almost 200 times and some 100 injuries had been inflicted on him after he was already dead, the Press Association reported, quoting unnamed sources.

Ferez suffered around 50 injuries during a long ordeal at his friend’s bedsit, or studio apartment.

Detective chief inspector Mick Duthie told a press conference at New Scotland Yard: "I have never seen injuries inflicted to bodies like this before. The extent of the injuries are horrific. Everyone working on this case, including myself, has been deeply shocked by what we have seen."

"I have never seen injuries like this throughout my career. We are here today because I don’t know why these boys were killed or who killed them. I do believe, however, that those responsible must have been blood-stained when they left," he said.

Detective chief inspector Mick Duthie appealed for witnesses to come forward and to help explain "a frenzied, brutal and horrific attack."