A MANHUNT is under way for a backpacker suspected of murdering a British man and a woman found semi-naked on a Thai beach.
The suspect may have fled to Bangkok from the divers' paradise island of Koh Toa, where David Miller, 24, from Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, were battered to death.
A blood-stained hoe, believed to be the murder weapon, was found nearby.
Locals were reported to have blockaded Koh Tao's only pier to prevent the killer escaping.
Local police chief Colonel Songsak said a British man who may have known the male victim had left the island. His name has been circulated to police but not given to the media.
The British authorities were aware of reports about the suspect - and a source said they were "looking into them urgently".
It was not thought the victims were a couple but had met recently on the island.
Their bodies were found on a rocky section of the shore around 100m from the scene of a beach party.
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