The girlfriend of British lecturer Hilary Bower (above) has been arrested with two men over his murder in southern China with local media reporting he had been dismembered

The girlfriend of a British lecturer has been arrested with two men over his murder with local media reporting he had been dismembered.

Hilary St John Bower, 60, who taught at a university in Hong Kong, was murdered over an 'emotional dispute', mainland Chinese police said.

A 38-year-old woman surnamed Xu and two men 'murdered her foreigner boyfriend Hilary Bower over an emotional dispute' the Shenzhen public security bureau said on its social media account.

It said Bower and Xu had lived together for 17 years.

The three were arrested on April 8 and the case was still under investigation, it added.

Hong Kong local media, citing unnamed public security sources, reported Xu had turned herself in to police in the Chinese city of Dongguan, where she had told officers she had murdered and then dismembered Bower with the help of two men.

Media reports painted a complex picture of his love life involving several women.

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

Police in Shenzhen confirmed on Friday that he had been murdered on March 22, a day after he went missing.

The Dongguan public security bureau could not confirm the details.

Local media said Bower had a number of girlfriends on the mainland.

One girlfriend, named by media as Shi Xiumei, had reported Bower missing at a police station in Hong Kong on March 30.

Bower had been reported to be living with Shi and their six-year-old son.

Fears were previously raised that his death could have been linked to a million-dollar property deal.

A friend of Bower, Richard Charles, told the South China Morning Post he believed it could be related to a recent property sale for which Bower was due to receive HK$9 million ($1.2 million).

Bower's brother Robin arrived in Shenzhen on Wednesday where he hoped to meet with Chinese authorities to search for answers, the Post said.

Bower had also taught in China, South Korea, Thailand, Spain and Kuwait, according to his personal homepage on the university website.

Richard Charles, a colleague of Mr Bower, described police on both sides of the border as 'shoddy and shambolic' in their handling of the case so far, the South China Morning Post reported.

'I find it unbelievable that Hilary's friends and colleagues have had to find out from the media about this. We are in shock and are extremely upset,' he said.

Mr Charles suggested the death could have been over a 'complicated' deal, which was reportedly over a property in an industrial district in Shenzhen.

He said: 'I do know that after buying at the bottom of the property market a good few years ago, he was expecting to be paid somewhere in the region of £821,000.'

Mr Bower, who was originally from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, had been employed at the Polytechnic University since 1996. He was due to finish work at the institution when he went missing more than three weeks ago.

Mr Charles told The Telegraph Mr Bower had been 'very, very happy to be retiring' and added: 'He was really looking forward to being able to spend more time with his son.'

The 60-year-old, who recently closed a £820,000 property deal, was travelling from Hong Kong to visit his girlfriend and six-year-old son Matthew at the end of March when he disappeared

Media reports painted have a complex picture of his love life involving several women. Above, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where Mr Bower worked

Following his disappearance, Mr Bower's brother, Robin, who is based in the UK, alerted the police in Britain, according to The Telegraph.

A UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said at the time: 'We are providing assistance to the family of a British national reported missing in southern China and are urgently seeking further information from local authorities.'

'Police have received notification from mainland relevant authorities that he was killed on the night of March 22,' a Hong Kong police statement said.

Murders of foreigners are extremely rare in China, though the murder in 2011 of another British man, Neil Heywood, triggered one of the country's biggest political scandals in decades.