A SUSPECTED serial killer could be quizzed about the disappearance of a Kent student who went missing in Germany six years ago.

Police in the German town of Aachen have arrested a 51-year-old man in connection with the rape and murder of five young women.

Detectives are expected to question him about other unsolved cases, including that of Louise Kerton who disappeared in July, 2001, after visiting her boyfriend's family in a village near Aachen.

She was 24 when she disappeared and studying nursing at Canterbury Christ Church University. She had been living in Broadstairs.

Her father Phil says if the suspect, who police have not named, is responsible for her death it will bring his family closure.

"We never really knew what the word closure meant before but I suppose it would bring that, yes," said Mr Kerton, who lives in New Ash Green, near Gravesend.

Mr Kerton said his family had thought about the possibility that Louise was the victim of a serial killer.

"It is one of the outcomes we have considered," he said. "However, we had something similar about three years ago in Belgium. It's good to know the case is still alive."

German TV station Deutsche Welle reported on Tuesday that the suspect had been arrested after a DNA hit.

The station said that the former insurance salesman had confessed to murdering five women between 1983 and 1990, adding that police would interview him in connection with other unsolved crimes in Germany and neighbouring Belgium and Holland.