Double murder case e-fit issued

Three men were seen standing at the front gate

An e-fit of a man seen outside the scene of a double murder in Newcastle, shortly after the victims were last seen alive, has been released.

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

A witnesses reported seeing three Chinese men at the couple's front gate on 7 August.

The man in the e-fit is 5ft 8in to 6ft tall, in his 40s, stocky, with a pocked marked face and combed back hair.

He was seen with a bespectacled man wearing a football-type top and an artist's impression of this man was issued last month.

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

The third man is of average build, with short black hair which looked like it was brushed backwards and was greasy or wet.

He is described as being the tallest of the three at over 6ft tall and was wearing a dark suit.

The last known sighting of either of the victims alive was a CCTV image showing Miss Zhou arriving home from work.

Two witnesses have told police they saw the three men standing outside the couple's Croydon Road home, in the city's West End, an hour later.

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.