A 20-year-old man has been arrested for the murder of an Israeli university student who was walking home after a night out with friends in Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, police said on Friday.
Homicide detectives took the man into custody as part of an investigation into the killing of Aiia Maasarwe, 21, whose body was found by passersby near La Trobe University early on Wednesday, Victoria state police said in a statement.
No other details about the man were released.
The arrest came hours before a vigil for Maasarwe, which thousands of people were expected to attend.
Maasarwe was attacked as she returned to the university's campus in Melbourne's northeast, where she had been on a study abroad program, after watching a comedy show.
Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper said she was slain at 12:10 a.m. on Wednesday shortly after she got off a train in the suburb of Bundoora.
Maasarwe was having a conversation with her sister when she was attacked on her way home from a comedy club, Stamper said. The sister "heard the sound of the phone falling to the ground, she heard some voices and that was it," he said.
"This was an absolutely horrendous, horrific attack inflicted on a completely innocent young woman who was a visitor to our city," he added.
Her uncle, Abed Kittani, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that Maasarve's sister "heard the cars passing by and she was helpless, she couldn't do anything." The sister sent messages, but there was no response.
"Instead of coming home with a diploma, she is coming back in a coffin," Kittani said.
Another uncle, Rame Maasarwe, said: "We cannot believe that something like this happened in Australia, we think it's very safe there."
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison offered Maasarwe's family his heartfelt condolences.
"We must remain vigilant ... I'm so sickened by the attack and frankly disturbed by it, as I'm sure Australians are all around the country," Morrison told reporters in Fiji, where he was winding up a Pacific tour.
He said his center-right coalition government would announce another "action plan" to stem violence against women ahead of an election expected by May, on top of A$350 million ($252 million) that has already been committed.
Maasarwe's father is in Melbourne but it was not clear if he would attend the vigil. People have already begun laying flowers at an impromptu shrine that sprang up in parkland near a shopping center where her body was found.
She grew up in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, a mostly Arab city in the Haifa district of Israel, before moving to China to study at Shanghai University. Her father had a business in China, Australian media reported.
Maasarwe was the second woman killed in similar circumstances in Melbourne in seven months.
Her death has recharged outrage over violence against women after 22-year-old Eurydice Dixon was killed while walking home after performing at a comedy show in June.
The deaths have fueled a growing sense of frustration, particularly from women who say they are already vigilant and that men have to take responsibility for their own behavior as well as challenging the views and actions of other men.
"Nothing will change until we change, too. Until we stop blaming 'bad men' - while ignoring the sexist attitudes in our society that created them," Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.
