New leads in torture murder hunt

Artist's impression of man seen outside the couple's flat

Police hunting the killers of a Chinese couple in Newcastle are following up new leads after a TV appeal.

The mutilated bodies of Zhen Xing Yang and girlfriend Xi Zhou, both 25, were found in their flat on 9 August.

After a Crimewatch reconstruction, detectives released an artist's impression of a man seen outside the couple's flat before the murders.

Officers say callers to the programme suggested a name for the man they are trying to trace.

No arrests have been made despite appeals to the English and Chinese communities on Tyneside and in London.

Mr Yang had been tortured before being stabbed to death. The couple's cat was also drowned by their killers.

The artist's impression of a bespectacled man wearing a football-type top, is one of three people seen outside the couple's Croydon Road flat less than an hour after Xi Zhou was last seen alive.

Det Supt Steve Wade, senior investigating officer, said: "These three individuals were seen at the front gate very close to the time that Xi Zhou arrived home from work on Thursday 7 August.

Xi Zhou and her boyfriend Zhen Xing Yang studied at Newcastle University

"It is important for us to trace these three and speak to them as they may have important information."

A reconstruction surrounding the Croydon Road murder investigation was screened on the Crimewatch programme on Thursday night.

The programme featured a reconstruction of the last known movements of the two victims.

A Northumbria Police spokesman added: "As a result of the appeal police have received a number of potentially important calls and text messages."