A woman in her mid-20s was found murdered near Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport on Friday morning. The body, with the throat slit, was lying in front of a factory.

Police could neither identify the woman nor pinpoint the motive for the killing.

?Local residents saw the body and immediately alerted Airport police station. The upper part was covered by a kameez,? said Praveen Kumar, superintendent of police, North 24-Parganas.

?It seems she was from a well-off family. We are sure she was murdered on the spot,? said an officer working on the case.

Police are waiting for the post-mortem report to ascertain whether the woman was raped.

An Airport police station officer said: ?There were deep wounds all over the body. The ankles were slashed and marks of stabbing were found on the chest and abdomen. Before committing the crime, the killers took off her clothes ? a blue-and-white kameez and blue salwaar. Our investigation suggests the woman had tried her best to resist her killers.?

Sandhya Dey, CPM councillor of ward 5 of Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality, believes the woman was an outsider. ?Had any woman from our area been missing, her family would have informed us.?

Police superintendent Kumar said efforts were on to establish the identity of the victim. ?Her face has been photographed and the picture is being telecast by cable operators in the districts. We hope someone will come forward and identify her. We believe she was from our district or from any of the adjoining districts. Copies of the picture have been sent to all police stations in the region, including the city.?

The incident has sparked panic among residents around the airport. They alleged that the murder was a fallout of ?immoral activities? in bars and hotels along VIP Road and in the Rajarhat-Baguiati area.

?We have noticed that a number of women come to areas near the airport in the evening. We have informed police, but the officers did not pay any heed to it,? said Manu Dutta, a social activist.