Three women were on Monday remanded in custody for eight days in connection with the death of 30-year-old Nigerian national Victory Osarumen Thompson, who was found dead in a flat in Yermasoyia, Limassol.

A post-mortem examination carried out by state pathologists Angeliki Papetta and Orthodoxos Orthodoxou found that the victim died from head and body injuries caused by a blunt instrument.

The report stated that the death resulted from “cranial and multiple body trauma inflicted by a blunt object”. Samples were taken from the body for further laboratory tests.

The three women in custody, two aged 24 and one aged 35, told police they returned home after a night out to find the victim in a highly agitated state, possibly under the influence of drugs.

According to their statements, Thompson allegedly attacked and bit one of them, leading the others to use force to restrain her. Police said a broken broomstick, believed to have been used during the incident, was found at the scene.

Investigators are also searching for a Nigerian couple who, according to the detained women, were present in the apartment at the time. The pair allegedly left after Thompson lost consciousness.

Police said the case is being investigated as premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit a felony.

In an earlier statement, the police said the woman was found with “injuries to various parts of her body”.

Later on Monday, Limassol police spokesman Lefteris Kyriakou said that the evidence gathered both from on-site examinations and from an autopsy of Thompson’s body “determined that this was a criminal act”.

He said that “various items of evidence” have been taken for “scientific examinations”.

He added that the three people who had been arrested had all been living with Thompson, and that all four were asylum seekers.

One of the three who were arrested, he said, had had her asylum application rejected, and was as such “in Cyprus illegally” at the time of Thompson’s death.

He had said on Sunday that the police had been informed that a body had been found in a block of flats by the ambulance service at around 11am.

He added that Thompson had lived in the building “for the last few days” and that she shared her flat with other people.

The police’s investigation into the matter is ongoing.