Beirut 18 Dec (ANA) - Police in Lebanon have arrested a man in connection with the murder of a British diplomat in Beirut. The body of Rebecca Dykes, who worked at the British Embassy in the city, was found by a motorway on Saturday. Police sources said the suspect was a taxi driver and Ms Dykes had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Her family said in a statement: "We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca. We are doing all we can to understand what happened." They added: "We request that the media respect our privacy." Ms Dykes, who is believed to have been 30, had been working in Beirut as the programme and policy manager for the Department for International Development since January 2017. It is thought she had spent Friday evening at a going-away party for a colleague in the popular Gemmayzeh district of Beirut, the BBC's Middle East correspondent Martin Patience said. After leaving the bar at about midnight it appears she was abducted. Her body was found close to a motorway on the outskirts of the city. The Foreign Office said it was in contact with the Lebanese authorities and confirmed an arrest had been made. The suspect was arrested in the early hours of Monday morning after police reportedly traced his car on traffic management CCTV.

An official told the Reuters and AFP news agencies the preliminary investigation had showed Ms Dykes's killing "was not politically motivated".(ANA)

FA/ANA/18 December 2017-----