Sabita Thanwani, a 19-year-old student in London, has been named as a murder victim, with police hunting for a Tunisian, Maher Maaroufe, with whom she is said to have been in a relationship.

The police said although formal identification was yet to take place, Sabita’s family had been informed and were being supported by specialist officers. Officers were called around 5.10am on Saturday to reports of a woman injured at Arbour House, a student accommodation in Sebastian Street, Clerkenwell, in north London.

Sabita’s neighbour, Arsh Srivastava, 21, a business student, said: “I heard a voice that sounded like a grown man. I heard the fire alarm go off and I heard someone running out of a back ground-floor exit near where I live. I thought it was the suspect.

“The police showed up around half an hour later. I heard them talking about someone trying to escape through the hallway door. She lived on the sixth floor.”

The London Ambulance Service and officers attended and found Sabita, a psychology student at City, University of London, gravely injured. She is believed to have been attacked on the fifth floor. Despite the efforts of the emergency services, Sabita, who had serious neck injuries, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The officer heading the murder inquiry, detective chief inspector Linda Bradley, Specialist Crime, said: “I am reiterating our urgent appeal for information to trace 22-year-old Maher Maaroufe. He has links across London, particularly in the Marble Arch, Edgware Road, and Lewisham areas. He is also known to travel to Cambridgeshire.

“Maaroufe had been in a relationship with Sabita but he was not a student. He is a Tunisian national of no fixed address.”

Another of Sabita’s neighbours, Leona Sigmud, 20, described her as “just a normal student who kept herself to herself”.