Murder police arrest man over missing student

DETECTIVES hunting for a student missing since a freshers’ night out arrested a man on suspicion of murder yesterday.

Thomas Jones, 18, pictured, had not been seen since leaving a club in the early hours of Wednesday. He had called his mother to say he was home safe after 3am but never arrived.

Yesterday, more than 500 volunteers joined the hunt, scouring the area near the River Severn in Worcester.

Residents were asked to check CCTV video, dashcams and garden sheds. But later West Mercia Police asked volunteers to go home. They had released pictures of two men they wanted to trace, seen in the Velvet nightclub on the night Tom, who was training to be a primary school teacher, disappeared.

Officers said the pair were later ‘identified’. It was not clear yesterday if they had been eliminated from inquiries.

Police would only say last night that they had arrested a 20-year-old Worcester man on suspicion of murder.

The University of Worcester student’s father Ian, 53, of Bromsgrove, had said: ‘We are all so worried, it has been the most distressing two days of our lives and it’s completely out of character for Tom.’