Hunt for man after Briton's death

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Police investigating the death of a British woman in Japan have issued an arrest warrant for a 28-year-old man.

The body of Lindsay Ann Hawker, from Brandon near Coventry, was found in a bath of sand on a fourth-floor flat balcony in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo.

The 22-year-old had been teaching English in Japan for the past five months.

Friends and well-wishers have been delivering flowers and tributes to Miss Hawker's family home in Warwickshire.

Reported missing

Ch Insp Dale Pritchard, of Warwickshire Police, said the family were "in a terrible position, one in which no-one would ever want to be".

"They just want to be left alone to manage their grief in private."

Miss Hawker graduated less than a year ago from Leeds University and was teaching English at Koiwa school in Tokyo.

She was reported missing on Monday by the Nova language school, where she worked, after she failed to answer her mobile phone when her flatmate called.

Officers visited the flat of a 28-year-old Japanese man in Ichikawa as part of their inquiries and found her body.

The apartment block where the body was found was sealed offPolice official Masaru Hiratsu said the body was found late on Monday and an arrest warrant was issued for the man.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that the body of a British national was found in an apartment in the Chiba district of Tokyo.

"Next of kin have been informed and we are in close contact with relatives.

"Japanese police investigations are ongoing and they are keeping the British Embassy fully informed of any developments."

A spokeswoman from the Nova language school in London said the company was fully co-operating with police inquiries.