Dead woman identified, police arrest man, 64 (Update 3)

Police have arrested a 64-year-old man in connection with the death of a woman who was found in a Nicosia house on Tuesday afternoon.

According to the police report, the man was arrested and taken into custody under a court arrest warrant as part of their investigation involving premeditated murder of the 55-year-old woman, identified as Liliana Niteanu from Romania.

An autopsy carried out on the deceased found that she died from haemorrhagic shock caused from injuries with a sharp object, police said on Wednesday as investigations continued.

The cause of death was revealed after a post-mortem carried out on the dead woman by state examiner Nicolas Charalambous on Wednesday morning.

Police spokesman Christos Andreou said one person was questioned in the early morning hours on Wednesday as part of efforts to identify the body.

The body was found covered with a sheet shortly after 4pm in an abandoned two-storey house on a secondary street of Kennedy avenue Nicosia by a building contractor who went there to carry out work.

Police believed it was foul play as the dead woman had multiple head wounds that appear to have been caused by a sharp object.

Media reported the body belonged to a woman aged 50 to 55, who was homeless and was staying in the house with her husband and another person. Blankets and other objects were reportedly found in the abandoned house.

The scene remains cordoned off while police continues its investigations.