Police investigating the deaths of two men whose remains were found in suitcases have arrested a man in Bristol. The bags were discovered at Clifton Suspension Bridge shortly before midnight on Wednesday night.
A 34-year-old man was arrested at Temple Meads railway station in the early hours of Saturday by armed Avon and Somerset Police officers and was taken into custody.
He will be taken to London for questioning later on Saturday, and police said they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.
The man was arrested following a joint operation carried out by the Metropolitan Police and Avon and Somerset Police, and Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Valentine said: “This is a significant development in our investigation and I would like to thank the public for their support.
“We understand the concerns of local communities in both Bristol and London and officers will remain in the Clifton and Shepherd’s Bush areas over the coming days to reassure those affected by this tragic incident.
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“Anyone with any concerns is encouraged to speak with them.”
The search led police to a high-rise building in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, which was cordoned off on Friday afternoon, with a helicopter circling overhead.
Detectives later confirmed that further human remains had been found at the flat in Scotts Road and were being “sensitively removed”. Officers believe that the remains belong to the same two men whose bodies were found in Bristol.
One neighbour, Rebecca, 26, said police officers arrived at 4.30am at the address and smashed the door down. The street was cordoned off throughout the day as forensics officers carried out their work. The building is understood to house four flats, which neighbours said were occupied by single occupants, a male and female couple, and two elderly men.
Last night officers said they wanted to talk to Yostin Andres Mosquera. Images of a suspect, taken close to the bridge, show a man wearing a black Adidas baseball cap, black jeans, a black jacket with a logo on it, black trainers with thick white soles and a black backpack.
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The suspect is understood to have travelled to Bristol in a vehicle in which he was not the driver. He was picked up in a taxi outside a pub in Clifton, an affluent area in the west of the city.
He is understood to have made a short journey in a taxi from outside the pub to the other side of the bridge, which connects Bristol with Leigh Woods in North Somerset.
Giles Malone, who was visiting his father in Bristol from the United States, was waiting for a taxi shortly before 11pm on Wednesday outside The Mall pub when he saw two men dragging “old, tatty suitcases” from a car.
The suitcases appeared so heavy that the tourist joked “what have you got in there, a body?”
He said: “They looked as though they had taken it from a silver-coloured family car which had its boot open and were trying to cross the road with it.
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“I thought about giving them a hand but they were young men and although it was heavy they were coping with it.”
The incident took place just a few hundred metres from the bridge, which opened in 1864.
Malone said that a woman came to their assistance to help the men lug another suitcase and also made a joke about its weight, saying “there could be a body inside”.
Malone, who was with his wife, Alison, said he saw one white man and one black man carrying the cases. He does not believe the man pictured by police was one of them.
Staff working on the bridge are said to have confronted the suspect alongside a cyclist. The cyclist then chased the man down a residential street close to the western side of the bridge but was unable to stop him from getting away.
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Witnesses have described their horror after noticing the trail of blood left by the suitcases across the bridge.
Reece Wright, 20, a student at the University of Bristol, stumbled upon the scene and saw the cases. One was on the bridge and the other silver coloured case was on a footpath nearby.
He told the BBC: “It was all very unexpected. I was trying to rationalise it when I saw the blood.”
Wright said one of the suitcases, which was blue, had two wheels broken off and “red stuff which we now know to be blood leaking out of the side near the zip, it was quite graphic”.
Another witness, who was walking with their partner, said that they saw the suitcases and commotion at 11.37pm, with the suspect said to be shouting in Spanish as he was chased.
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Police were called to the bridge at 11:57pm but by the time they arrived the man was gone.
The taxi driver was located by police and has assisted with inquiries. Their car has been seized.
Police said they believe they know the identity of the victims although they have not yet been formally identified. The results of one post-mortem examination was inconclusive. Further post-mortem examinations will take place following the discovery of the remains in London.
On Friday evening, a 36-year-old man was arrested by officers in Greenwich, east London, before being released without charge.
