A 29-YEAR-OLD French man has been charged with the murder of British backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung.
The 21-year-old British woman, originally from Derbyshire, was fatally stabbed in the early hours of yesterday morning at a hostel in the remote village of Home Hill in Queensland in the north-east of Australia.
The cause of death was multiple stab wounds.
Queensland Police have named the man charged with Mia’s murder as Smail Ayad.
He has also been charged with two counts of attempted murder, 12 counts of serious assault towards police officers, and one count of serious animal cruelty.
Two other people were also stabbed in the incident, one of whom, 30-year-old British man Tom Jackson remains in a critical condition in hospital. It’s understood that he tried to intervene in the attack and received wounds to the head.
A dog was also killed in the incident.
The BBC reports that Ayad had been in Home Hill for about a month, while Mia had only been there a number of days since travelling north from Surfers Paradise for a three-month stint working with animals.
Ayad is due to appear before a court via video link tomorrow morning.
https://www.facebook.com/QueenslandPolice/videos/10154620599963254/
Queensland police said that Ayad’s “demeanour remains unchanged” since his arrest.
While it has been suggested that Mia’s killer shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great” in Arabic) prior to the incident, police say that there is no indication of radicalisation or links to extremist groups in his case.
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