ESSEX Police are not linking two brutal murders in Colchester with a vicious killing in Swindon.

Hundreds of officers are searching for the killers of father-of-five James Attfield and University of Essex student Nahid Al-Manea who were both killed in Colchester and both subjected to horrific knife attacks.

Detectives in Swindon are investigating the death of a man in his 60s who was killed in "an extremely vicious attack" near an underpass near the railway station.

Prof David Wilson, who is a professor of Criminology Birmingham City University, has questioned whether there are links between the Colchester and Swindon murders.

However, the line of inquiry has been ruled out by Essex Police.