Man charged in student killings

LONDON, July 10 (UPI) -- An unemployed homeless man remained behind bars Thursday charged in the torture-slaying of two French students in southeast London, police say.

Nigel Farmer, 33, was charged with two counts of murder and arson in the deaths of Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomo, both 23.

The biochemistry students had been stabbed more than 200 times before their bodies were burned in a June 29 fire started in a New Cross apartment, The Times of London reported.

Investigators said the pair had been bound and gagged and splashed with an inflammable liquid.

Two other possible suspects, a man and a woman, were reported in custody and undergoing questioning, police told The Times.