HANNAH MURDER HUNT

The identity of the man arrested has not been confirmed by police but has been named in the Indian media today as Maninder Pal Singh Kohli. He was the man named by Hampshire detectives as the man they want to quiz in connection with the rape and murder of Hannah.

Police also said today that it could take up to two days to formally identify the man being held.

The arrest comes just days after Hannah's parents travelled to India to launch a helpline for information to track down the 17-year-old's killer.

They had travelled with Superintendent Alan Betts, the man leading the hunt for killer of Hannah who was murdered as she walked home from a pub in Portswood, Southampton, in March last year.

Today Supt Betts told the Daily Echo he was ''cautiously optimistic'' that the arrest was a major breakthrough in the long running inquiry.

The arrest was made in a motel room in Kalimpong, near Darjeeling, in west Bengal near the border with Nepal, 2,000 miles from Chandigarh, where the Fosters and Supt Betts are currently continuing their tour of the country.

Supt Betts added: ''It's early days, it's a matter of sorting things out. These things have happened before and it has been the wrong man. I'm not too excited but I am hopeful.''

He said the arrest came as a result of the Fosters trip to India but could not confirm whether it came from one of the 134 calls made to the special information hotline launched by Hannah's parents at a high profile press conference on Tuesday. It was reported that a friend of Kohli had been arrested by police yesterday and they hoped he would lead them to the suspect.

Kholi, 35, had sparked an international manhunt after disappearing to India following the discovery of Hannah's strangled body in a country lane near Southampton.

A massive police hunt led by the Central Bureau of Investigation - India's equivalent of the FBI - has been continuing since Kohli was identified as the prime suspect at the end of March.

Murder squad detectives from Hampshire also flew out to Delhi to liaise with the authorities, share intelligence and help battle through red tape.

Three officers including Det Supt Alan Betts, senior investigating officer on the murder investigation, spent just under two weeks last year working in Delhi.

The team liaised with Interpol, the British Embassy, CBI detectives and local police in the Punjab during their stay.

Officers have also been in daily contact with their Indian counterparts. A warrant for Kohli's arrest was issued by Southampton magistrates on April 3 last year on the grounds of murder, kidnap, false imprisonment, rape, manslaughter and perverting the course of justice.

The document was faxed through to the Indian authorities via Interpol five days later.

Hampshire police revealed they had a key suspect for Hannah's murder following a tip-off resulting from a nationwide television appeal on the BBC's Crimewatch UK programme, screened on March 26.

Within hours, ports and airports had been put on alert but investigations revealed the man had caught a flight from Heathrow to Delhi on March 18 - two days after Hannah's body was found in Allington Lane, West End.

Detectives later confirmed the man's identity as Kohli following a front page Daily Echo article on May 6, with his photograph.

The sandwich delivery driver worked for Hazlewood Foods in Empress Road, St Denys, and lived with his family in a flat in Broadlands Road, Swaythling, before his disappearance.

He was thought to have lived in Britain for the past nine years.

Reports in India claimed he had spent around ten days staying with his bedridden mother and other relatives in Chandigarh before going into hiding following a phonecall from the UK.

Hannah, who was studying for A-levels at Barton Peveril College, Eastleigh, vanished as she walked home from a night out with friends at pubs in Bevois Valley on Friday, March 14, 2003.

Police believe the teenager was abducted just yards from her family home in Grosvenor Road, Portswood.

Her body was found dumped in undergrowth at Allington Lane, West End, two days later. Police said she had been raped and strangled.

Hannah's murder prompted police to launch a massive murder inquiry codenamed Operation Springfield, which saw more than 100 officers drafted in from across Southampton.

The investigation, based at Hulse Road divisional police headquarters in Southampton, was later scaled down following the identification of a prime suspect.

Hannah, a gifted student, hoped to become a doctor and had already secured a place to read medicine at Bristol University.

Her parents, Trevor and Hilary, have set up the Hannah Foster Fund in her memory, with the aim of helping local good causes close to their daughter's heart.

The couple, who have a younger daughter Sarah, 14, have praised police working on the inquiry as "the building blocks holding us together".

In an open letter to the investigation team, Mr and Mrs Foster wrote: "We appreciate the long hours you must be working and the sacrifices you are having to make as a result, in terms of your own family life."