A British teacher is believed to have been murdered in Qatar hours after flying back to the Middle East from her grandmother’s funeral.
Friends of primary school teacher Lauren Patterson, 24, said she was last seen at a nightclub in the capital, Doha, with two Qatari men, one of whom was an ex-boyfriend.
A friend said the ex-boyfriend had since gone to Saudi Arabia and Doha police had taken the other man, who had a bruised lip, in for questioning.
There were suggestions from friends that Miss Patterson had left a nightclub at five-star hotel La Cigale with a group of Qatari men and had texted friends to say she was being taken to the wrong house.
One close friend posted a message on Twitter saying: ‘Lauren was raped and brutally murdered.
‘Her body was found in the dumpsters behind La Cigale.’
The £180-a-night hotel has three nightclubs. Its website boasts ‘welcome to the best party in Doha’.
Miss Patterson was last seen outside La Cigale at 1.20am on Saturday, but it is not clear what happened next.
The man who was arrested, a friend of Miss Patterson’s ex-boyfriend, claimed he got his bruised lip after a fight with a taxi driver.
He claims the driver had dropped Miss Patterson at the wrong address. Police searched the man’s apartment but he was later released.
After Miss Patterson disappeared, her family and boyfriend launched a frantic campaign on Facebook and other social media to find her.
But 40 hours later, her boyfriend, James Grima, posted a message saying she was dead.
It was followed by dozens of other tributes, praising a ‘truly amazing’ young woman.