Jasper Taruvinga, who police suspect killed Rudo Mawere and stuffed her body into a travel bag, found dead in Kent woods

The chief suspect in the murder of an African student found dead in a travel bag on a Dublin street is thought to have killed himself after fleeing to England.

Detectives investigating the killing of Rudo Mawere, 26, from Malawi, at the weekend, wanted to question a man who has been found hanged in a tree in Higham, Kent.

A Garda source said the man's name was Jasper Taruvinga, who was originally from Zimbabwe and who had been living in Coventry in the West Midlands.

The suspect is thought to have fled Dublin after the killing into Northern Ireland and onwards by ferry to Britain. A dog walker came across his body in a wooded area in the small village of Higham.

UK police contacted their counterparts in Ireland after the discovery shortly after 9am on Wednesday morning.

It is understood that foul play is not suspected in the man's death.

A Garda source confirmed the dead man was wanted as a prime suspect in the killing of Mawere on Saturday evening.

Mawere's body was found by a passer-by stuffed into a travel bag abandoned alongside bins in north Dublin on Sunday morning.

She was fully clothed and a plastic bag had been placed over her head.

A post-mortem examination showed the student died of asphyxiation.

Detectives are working on a theory that she may have been strangled by a male friend in a row over the repayment of money she had lent him.

A house on Aughrim Street, a short distance from where the body was found and where it is believed Mawere may have been killed, remained sealed off on Wednesday.