A Chinese businessman, wanted on suspicion of murdering a university lecturer and his family, has been arrested in Morocco.

Anxiang Du, 53, was detained by Moroccan authorities on Saturday, after Northamptonshire Police launched an appeal in the North African country to find him.

Du is the prime suspect in the investigation surrounding the killings of Jifeng "Jeff" Ding, his wife Ge "Helen" Chui and their two daughters Alice, 12, and Xing, 18.

The family was found stabbed to death at their home in Wootton, Northamptonshire, on April 29 last year - the day of the royal wedding.

The Home Office will now undertake the responsibility around extradition procedures but a spokesman for Northamptonshire Police said they did not know how long they may take.

Detectives said last week they thought Du could have been evading capture in Morocco for more than a year and launched an appeal in the country.

They believe he boarded a bus at London's Victoria station shortly after the family was found dead and travelled to Paris and through France and Spain before catching a ferry from the port of Algeciras to Tangier.

Du has a background in herbal medicine and police are investigating the possibility he has used that to earn a living while on the run.