Lebanon arrests two over killing of British radio host

BEIRUT — Lebanon has arrested two people suspected of having murdered British radio presenter Gavin Ford who hosted one of Lebanon's most popular shows, security forces said on Thursday.

The 53-year-old's lifeless body was discovered on Tuesday at his home in Beit Meri, a mountain town east of Beirut where his employer Radio One is also based.

Two Syrians, born in 1991 and 1995, have been arrested in connection to his death, the security forces said in a statement, without specifying when they were detained.

"They admitted to committing murder and said they went on Monday afternoon to the home of the victim to steal," the statement said.

They confessed that they "strangled him and hit him on the head with a sharp object until he lost consciousness, and then left in his car", it added.

Security forces found some of the looted items, as well as "the victim's mobile phone and car keys", at the home of the suspects in the northern Beirut suburb of Al Nabaa.

A security source told AFP earlier that Ford's private safe was found empty, and his mobile phone had gone missing

After he was found dead, tributes started pouring in on social media for Ford, who had been one of Lebanon's most loved radio hosts for years.

They included Britain's Ambassador to Lebanon Chris Rampling, who said he was "shocked and deeply saddened" by the news.

Ford's death comes after British embassy employee Rebecca Dykes was murdered in December last year by a taxi driver who tried to rape her.

Such crime is rare in Beirut, a city largely considered safe, including for tourists and foreign residents.