A video clip posted on YouTube has helped Canadian police in the investigation of a nightclub murder.

Police in the southern Canadian city of Hamilton posted a clip from club surveillance cameras onto the popular naff clip sharing site in an appeal for information.

The clip was subsequently viewed by more the 34,000 people. The footage showed people arriving for a Sean Price hip-hop concert last month. Ryan Milner, 22, was knifed to death in a car park after the concert.

On Tuesday a baseball cap-wearing man seen on the clip, wanted for questioning, turned himself into the authorities. George Gallow, 24, of Hamilton, has subsequently been charged with the manslaughter of Milner and the attempted murder of another unnamed man, The Canadian Press reports. It is the first time police have used YouTube as a tool in a criminal investigation.

"This is the first time Hamilton police have utilised video web posting in an investigation, and to the best of its knowledge, the first time that law enforcement has ever used it as a direct investigative tool," staff sergeant Jorge Lasso told reporters at a news conference during which the arrest was announced, Reuters reports. "[There is] little doubt that the extra media generated by the use of YouTube contributed to the fact that this man turned himself in," he added.

Canadian police said they used YouTube rather than more conventional Crimewatch-style TV programs because of its popularity with young people, such as the concert goers they were seeking to help them as witnesses. The surveillance footage has since been pulled from the site. ®