Man wanted for questioning in police custody

The man wanted for questioning in connection with Monday's murder of Rachel Muscat is in police custody, bringing to an end an intensive manhunt.

In a terse statement, police said the search for 22-year-old Libyan Walid Ben Bazena, who went missing on the day of the murder, had ended, "as he is in police custody".

They did not say if he had been found or if he had given himself up.

Twenty-year-old Rachel, of Paola, was found stabbed to death at Bazena's residence in Bir-id-Deheb at midnight on Monday.

She had last been seen walking into the residence with Mr Bazena, who was her boyfriend, at 6 p.m. on the same day.

According to the post-mortem, the time of her death was between 6 and 7 p.m., when Bazena was seen leaving alone.

Rachel's father Joseph has since spoken about the couple's relationship, saying Bazena had been Rachel's "first love", but that she had wanted to end the relationship. Bazena, however, could not accept it, and had threatened to kill himself.

Mr Muscat believes that on that Monday she had met Mr Bazena with the intention of convincing him "not to do anything stupid to himself".