UK: Teenager held for Indian student's killing

A 17-year-old teenager has been arrested by the UK police on Tuesday in connection with the unprovoked killing of Indian student Anuj Bidve, who was shot down early Monday morning in what could be a hate-crime.

The unnamed teenager was arrested in the early hours today after a warrant was executed in the Salford area.

Hailing from Pune, Bidve, 23, was a postgraduate student of Microelectronics at Lancaster University and was visiting friends in Manchester during the Christmas holidays with other Indian students when he was gunned down.

Subhash Bidve, the victims father, appealed through Facebook for help to bring his body back to Pune.

He wrote: "Pl help in getting Anuj Bidve's dead body back to India...We appeal to all his friends in UK and India to help spread the word. Pl help us get Anuj back".

Without ruling out racism as a motive, chief superintendent Kevin Mulligan said: "This appears to be an unprovoked attack and we can't establish a motive at this time. We are investigating every possible aspect and we are in the early stages of the investigation, but we are not ruling anything out".

Post mortem results are expected to confirm on Tuesday that Bidve died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

Initial witness statements have been taken from the other eight Indian students who were with Bidve.

They are now "in a safe place" being cared for by the police until they return to Lancaster university, Mulligan said.

A spokeswoman for Lancaster University said counselling and support has been organised for Bidve's friends who were described as "deeply upset".