Police have arrested a 21-year-old-man believed to be connected with the brutal double murder of French students Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez. The victims, both aged 23, were found gagged, bound and stabbed in a burning apartment in Sterling Gardens, New Cross, London on Sunday night. The Metropolitan Police said the man, whose identity was not disclosed, was apprehended in the street at 3:40 p.m and is in custody at a police station in southeast London. The dead men’s bodies were discovered by firefighters who had been called to put out a blaze in the condo, which Bonomo was renting.

A pathologist identified 243 distinct injuries to the badly-burned corpses, Bonomo alone suffering 80 wounds after he passed away. The autopsy conducted at Greenwich mortuary revealed that the French students died from head, neck and chest inflicted wounds before the fire had developed. Bonomo received 196 stabs and Ferez 47.

``This attack was horrific,'' said Detective Chief Inspector Mick Duthie Duthie, leading the investigation. ``Everyone working on this case, including myself, has been deeply shocked by what we've seen.''

„A white male was seen running from the area at 9:30 p.m., around the time of the fire, which was started deliberately”, according to Duthie.

Police officials said that it appears the men died because of two handheld games consoles. Reportedly, two Sony PSP consoles were looted from the rented flat in Sterling Gardens.

Ferez, who lived in South Norwood, had came to spend the evening at his friend's flat, where they were playing computer games.

Officers are also investigating if there's a connection with a burglary at the flat six days earlier during which a black Packard Bell laptop computer was stolen, while Bonomo was in the shower.

Laurent Bonomo, from Velaux, southern France, and Ferez, from Prouzel in the north, considered among the brightest up-and-coming young scientists of their generation were graduate students taking part in a biochemistry research project at Imperial College London for a period of three months. They were supposed to go back to France at the end of the month.