Thaindian News

London, Dec 27 (IANS) A British teenager has been arrested over the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Indian student Anuj Bidve in Manchester Monday, a media report said Tuesday.

Bidve was part of a group of nine men and women — all Indian students — visiting the city for a short break for Christmas, Sky News reported.

No details were immediately available about the arrest in connection with the fatal shooting.

Hailing from Pune in India’s Maharashtra state, Bidve was shot in the head while walking from his hotel in Salford area towards the Manchester city centre around 1.30 a.m. He died at a hospital a short while later.

He was a postgraduate student in micro-electronics at Lancaster University.

The Sun said two men walked up to Bidve and his friends outside an eatery.

After a short exchange of words, one man pulled out a pistol and shot the Indian student in the side of the head at point-blank range. The two fled, leaving Bidve dying in the street in a pool of blood.

Manchester police chief superintendent Kevin Mulligan said it was an “awful, unprovoked attack on a young student”.

Witnesses said the attack was not a robbery or racially motivated.

The gunman was recognised as a white man in his mid 20s, of slim build and wearing a grey top. The other man had a heavier build and wore a black jacket.

Bidve’s friends were being looked after in a “safe place” by police.

A university spokeswoman told Sky News that counselling and support is being organised for Bidve’s friends who were described as “deeply upset”.

Bidve’s father Subhash has appealed for help on Facebook: “Pl help in getting Anuj’s dead body back to India.”

Among tributes that kept flowing on the social network, one said: “Can’t believe that someone so full of life had his life ruthlessly taken away from him for no mistake of his own … rest in peace.”