Does killer target blondes?

Detectives fear murdered French student Amelie Delagrange may have been the victim of a serial killer with a hatred of blondes.

They are studying assaults on three other women, all of them blonde - as well as a stalking incident minutes before the latest attack.

A schoolgirl has told police she was followed by a man as she crossed Twickenham Green after getting off a bus. Emily Dillon, 16, who has blonde hair, was walking behind her younger sister Siobhan and two friends when she became aware that a passenger on the bus had got off at the same stop and followed the group.

They started to walk across the green - where Miss Delagrange was killed - and the man followed them until they reached the busy street on the other side.

Emily said: "It's very scary to think what might have happened. We are all very shaken up. We've been told not to cross the green at night alone, but you think of Twickenham as a safe place."

The man the girls describe is in his thirties, short and with a side parting.

Miss Delagrange, 22, was beaten to death as she took a short cut home across a cricket pitch on the green last Thursday night.

Police believe her killer may have been lying in wait behind a cricket sightscreen.

Detectives now hope CCTV footage could have caught an image of her attacker. They are urgently studying pictures from the camera of a 281 bus which drove past Miss Delagrange as she walked home.

The student left Cristalz bar in Twickenham before boarding a 267 service which took her to Fulwell Bus Garage. Six minutes later CCTV caught her walking past the Loch Fyne Restaurant and then the bus-mounted camera - intended to film motorists using the bus lane - caught her walking towards Twickenham Green at 9.59pm. Detectives were today said to be studying this film "frame by frame" in the hope it might have caught an image of a suspect following her.

Separate CCTV footage which showed Miss Delagrange catching the 267 was released last night in an effort to jog people's memories and encourage witnesses to come forward.

Detectives are studying four other attacks with a blunt instrument, possibly a hammer, within a two-mile radius of Twickenham Green stretching back 19 months.

These include the murder last February of blonde Marsha McDonnell, 19, struck on the back of the head as she walked home after getting off a bus.

She bore a striking resemblance to the French student. Detectives from the McDonnell inquiry have been drafted into the latest investigation.

The Holmes computer system, normally used for serial murders, is also being used to analyse information from all the attacks.

A 16-year-old boy is still detained under the Mental Health Act in connection with Miss McDonnell's murder.