The girlfriend of a British lecturer has been arrested along with two men over his alleged murder in southern China, police have said.



Hilary Bower, 60, who taught at a university in Hong Kong, was murdered as part of an “emotional dispute”, mainland Chinese police said on Friday.

The English-language lecturer had been missing for more than three weeks after he was last seen on 21 March at the border between Hong Kong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen, where he is reported to have lived.

Hong Kong police said earlier this week that Bower had been killed on the mainland and “possibly” murdered.



On Friday, police in Shenzhen said he had been murdered on 22 March, a day after he went missing.

A 38-year-old woman named only as Xu and two men “murdered her foreigner boyfriend Hilary Bower over an emotional dispute”, the Shenzhen public security bureau said on its Weibo account.

Bower and Xu had lived together for 17 years, the bureau said, adding that the three individuals were arrested on 8 April and the investigation was continuing.

The British consulate has not confirmed that Bower was killed and said on Friday that it was supporting the family “at this difficult time” without giving further details.