(AP) British police have arrested a suspect in the brutal murders of two French students who were tied up and stabbed scores of times before their bodies were set alight.

The killings have shocked a country already worried by a spate of knife attacks involving young people; 18 teenagers have been slain in London this year.

Officers detained a 21-year-old man on a street in southeast London at about 3:40 a.m. (0240 GMT) Saturday, police said. He was being held at a London police station.

Police would not say whether the arrested man was the prime suspect in the case, and appealed for witnesses to come forward.

On June 29, Laurent Bonomo and his friend Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were bound and stabbed to death at Bonomo's rented apartment, near where the arrest was made. Bonomo had been stabbed nearly 200 times, while Ferez received nearly 50 stab wounds.

The men's badly burned bodies were found after neighbors in the New Cross neighborhood called police to report an explosion at the apartment. Investigators believe the attacker or attackers poured fuel over the bodies and ignited them in a bid to destroy evidence.

Forensic officers in white overalls sifted through the burned-out apartment for evidence Saturday.

Both victims were promising bioengineering students taking part in a three-month DNA research project at Imperial College in London, one of Britain's top universities.

Police said Friday the murders may be linked to the theft of two PlayStation game consoles, which they believe were taken from the apartment the night of the killings. A laptop computer also was stolen from the apartment six days before the attack.

The deaths have scared a city already on edge after a number of knife attacks. Eighteen teenagers have died in suspected murders in London this year, compared to 27 in all of 2007. Most were stabbed, and police in the city say the fight against knife crime has overtaken terrorism as their top priority.

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