Latvian police have arrested a man in connection with the murder of A-level student Jeshma Raithatha.

Scotland Yard confirmed that the detainee was the man who left the country after the 17-year-old was raped and stabbed thrice in the heart in bushes behind a west London leisure centre.

The Eastern European man rented a room in Dimmock Drive, less than 500 yards from both Jeshma's family home and the wooded den where her body was found.

It is still uncertain whether the man will be sent back to Britain, a Met spokesman said. "Legal proceedings have started on both sides."

Earlier this week further forensic tests, based on the lifespan of insects, revealed that Jeshma lay undiscovered for six-and-a-half days.

"We believe that she was killed on the day she was reported missing and not kidnapped somewhere," said Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Murphy, who leads the inquiry.

Due to early post mortem results detectives first thought she died six days after she disappeared from her school on Monday, May 16.

A staff member of Claremont High School, Kenton, saw Jeshma at about 1.30pm before she boarded a 204 bus to Wembley High Road.

There CCTV cameras filmed her as she bought a candle at Pound City and a top at Primark.

The aspiring singer and actress then caught a 92 bus to Sudbury Hill station, where she took a secluded footpath past the David Lloyd Leisure Centre in Greenford Road.

Mr Murphy told the Ealing Times the path is a "natural route" for her to take to her home on the Wood End estate.

"We do not know whether or not her attacker was hankering around the footpath for some time or whether he was passing through the footpath at the same time as her."

He dragged her more than 20 yards to a natural den used by drinkers, where he raped and stabbed her.

Mr Murphy confirmed that "items from Primark and Pound City" was found near her body.

Detectives are now ruling out the possibility that Jeshma, who wrote on several websites about her dreams to become a singer, was abducted by someone she knew.

"We can safely say that there is nothing from our enquiries to suggest that this was a meeting related to her social activities such as Internet usage," Mr Murphy said.

"All of our enquiries say that Jeshma was just an ordinary school girl."

Police urged anyone who was on the 92 bus or near the leisure centre on the afternoon of May 16 to call them on 020 8358 0300.