A 36-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of teacher Sabina Nessa.
"Sabina’s family have been informed of this significant development. They continue to be supported by specialist officers", Detective Chief Inspector Neil John said.
According to the Metropoiltan Police, the suspect was arrested at around 03:00 on 26 September in East Sussex. He has been taken into police custody.
Primary school teacher Sabina Nessa was found dead in Cator Park in Kidbrooke, southeast London, on 18 September. The 28-year-old was attacked and killed the night before as she was walking through the park to meet a friend at a pub.
On Friday, the Met said a 38-year-old man who had been arrested by homicide detectives on Thursday had been released under investigation. On Saturday, detectives arrested a man in his 40s on suspicion of murder before he was released under further investigation, too. By the time the two arrests had been made, the detectives investigating the case were said to believe that the prime suspect was still at large.
Police released CCTV footage on Friday showing a man walking through Pegler Square, Kidbrooke, southeast London, where Nessa was walking to a pub on the night she was murdered. The man in the footage was dressed in a black hooded jacket and grey jeans, and was carrying a red object, which detectives believe he may have been attempting to conceal.
“We as a family are shocked of the murder of our sister, daughter and aunty to my girls. There are no words to describe how we are feeling as a family at the moment. We did not expect that something like [this] would ever happen to us. I urge everyone to walk on busy streets when walking home from work, school or a friend’s homes. Please keep safe”, Nessa’s sister, Jebina Yasmin Islam, said in a statement on Friday evening before a vigil at the East London Mosque.