BRITISH police have arrested a man after cats were beheaded and left on display in a spate of attacks investigators say bear chilling similarities to hundreds of animal mutilation murders across the country.

The 31-year-old, who has not been named, was detained in relation to five cat mutilation killings over Christmas as well as arsons carried out in August and November last year at Northhampton in England’s East Midlands.

In December, Northamptonshire Police told local media that the five deaths were being treated as part of Operation Takahe — t he Metropolitan Police Service’s probe of hundreds of animal mutilation murders nationwide since 2015.

The arrest follows the latest cat death discoveries, in which five family pets were found mutilated around Northampton over the Christmas period.

All five of the cats from Northampton were decapitated and left for their owners or members of the public to find.

The first, one-year-old Rusty, was left in a plastic bag on the owner’s doorstep and was discovered by the family’s 14-year-old daughter, according to the Northampton Telegraph.

Topsy, a 15-year-old, was the second in the area to go missing after last being seen on the driveway of her owner’s home. The next morning, the cat’s mutilated remains were found stuffed inside a carrier bag and left on a path outside the house.

The third and fourth, two unnamed cats, were found killed in the suburb of Duston before the latest discovery, which saw a decapitated cat placed on top of a car near the owner’s home, the Northampton Telegraph reported.

Following the killings, Northamptonshire Police issued advice to owners, which includes keeping all cats and rabbits indoors at night.

The Metropolitan Police and animal charity SNARL (South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty) believe more than 400 animals have been slain in the same manner in the past two-and-a-half years.

The attacker was first dubbed the “Croydon cat killer”, because the murders were believed to have started in the south London suburb in October 2015.

While most of the victims have been felines, rabbits, foxes and even swans have also been targeted, with the both the head and the tail of the animal typically found to have been severed.

A Northamptonshire Police spokeswoman told The Independentthe force had been in contact with Operation Takahe officers.

“We are aware of the Metropolitan Police investigation, Operation Takahe, into similar offences in the London area, and we will continue to work closely with them as part of our ongoing investigation,” she said.

Officers could not be certain if the Northampton attacks were linked to killings elsewhere in the UK but that “there are a lot of similarities”, the spokeswoman said.