Three men have been arrested in Britain in connection with the rape and murder of a young mother found beaten to death after a night out in a loyalist club in Belfast 30 years ago.

Detectives investigating the killing of Lorraine McCausland detained two men, aged 49 and 56, in Scotland and another suspect, aged 53, in England.

Mother-of-two Lorraine McCausland, 23, was found beside a stream in the Forthriver area of north Belfast in the early hours of 8 March 1987.

She had been for a night out and was last seen in a nearby loyalist club at Tyndale.

The case was reopened last year after detectives identified "potential new lines of inquiry".

Fourteen arrests were made during the original police investigation but no one was charged. Members of the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association were suspected of killing Ms McCausland.

Police believe witnesses have long been fearful of coming forward due to the involvement of the violent group.

Ms McCausland's son, Craig, was murdered in north Belfast in 2005 during a spate of killings linked to a loyalist paramilitary feud.

The three men arrested will be transported to Northern Ireland for questioning.