US Edition A Saudi Arabian student stabbed to death in Essex may have been targeted because she was a Muslim, police have confirmed.
Nahid Almanea, 31, was wearing a dark blue full-length robe and a patterned head-scarf when she was brutally attacked on Tuesday.
She was found with 16 stab wounds, two of which proved fatal, close to her home in Colchester and near the University of Essex, where she had been studying English.
Police have said her distinctive clothing is a key line of inquiry and contributed to the possibility that the "frenzied" attack was religiously motivated.
Ms Almanea, had been living with her brother while enrolled in a short English language course, was described by lecturers as a “conscientious student”.
Richard Barnard, head of the University’s International Academy, said: "Nahid was a student on the Essex English Language Programme, which develops students' English language skills.
"Nahid joined this programme and was a very hard-working and conscientious student, who was making excellent progress.
"She was a quiet, considerate and well-respected member of the programme and had ambitions to move on to further academic study.
“She will be greatly missed by her teachers and her fellow students."
Ms Almanea is reported to have been planning to undertake a PhD in life sciences and had co-authored a number of academic papers since 2010.
Police have confirmed that she left her home in Woodrow Way at 10am and was found with fatal stab wounds on nearby Salary Brook Trail 40 minutes later.
They said they have arrested a 52-year-old man who is being questioned on suspicion of murder and are also probing potential links with the death of Jim Attfield, who was killed in similar circumstances in March.
Det Supt Hawkings, head of major crimes for Essex Police said: "This crime was committed on a busy thoroughfare where you would expect a number of people to be walking.
"It was a brazen, reckless attack and there is a high likelihood people were there or there about at the time."
"She was stabbed a number of times. We don't know how many but two wounds were significant. She had a number of facial injuries consistent with being struck in the face or the back of the head.
On the question of links with Mr Attfield, who was stabbed more than 100 times in a Colchester park, she added: "There are significant similarities between both crimes.
“Both victims sustained frenzied knife wounds. Both were on secluded paths in parks used by members of the public. But there are differences such as gender and we can't discount the possibility of hate crime."
Meanwhile, a British extremist fighting in Iraq has used the murder to encourage followers in the UK to commit revenge attacks on non-Muslims.
The British member of Isis, the fanatical Islamic force leading an insurgency in Iraq, said Muslims should "take up a knife and kill as they did in Colchester".
Abu Rashash Britani, who has previously said he would bring Isis' brand of bloody attacks to Britain, tweeted: "These kuffar [non-Muslims] getting out of hand, dare they touch a #Muslimah.
"I call upon any brother to take up a knife and kill as they did #colchester."
Comparing Ms Almanea’s death to the to murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Greenwich last year, he added: "#colchester attack is cowardly act. At least when our noble brothers, killers of #leerigby did so they killed a soldier not a civilian.
"I pray a revenge attack takes place in #uk against those enemies of #Islam n #Muslims."
But Omar Ali, president of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, yesterday paid tribute to the victim.
"My heart sank after hearing the traumatising news an innocent life had been brutally snatched away,” he said.
"This is the saddest piece of information I have received in all my years of activism in the student sector.”
He added: "This isn't the first attack on a Muslim student and certainly is not the last on a member of the Muslim community in the UK.”
The Saudi Arabian embassy in London also confirmed the victim had a brother in Britain, adding that they had contacted him to offer assistance.
"Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Ambassador to the UK, expressed in a telephone call to the brother of the deceased his sincerest condolences to her family,” a spokesman said.
"He affirmed the embassy's speed in taking all the procedures for the transfer of the body of the deceased to the Kingdom, highlighting in this regard the embassy will not stop until reaching the aspects of this case."