Swiss hold woman after body cut in half found in France

The French woman who lives in the Swiss village of Sainte-Croix has been "placed in pre-trial detention following her arrest on November 2 by a border guard patrol," police in the Vaud canton of western Switzerland said.

"She is suspected of having set fire to her home and of being involved in the disappearance of her landlord," the regional police said in a statement.

Multiple sources told AFP Tuesday that a French woman residing in the Vaud canton had been arrested after the discovery on Saturday of a body cut in two in Fedry, a small village in Haute-Saone in neighbouring eastern France.

The sources said the arrested woman had been identified as the tenant in an apartment belonging to a 75-year-old Swiss man who had been reported missing on Friday.

"Although formal identification procedures are still taking place, the initial findings... suggest that this could be the person who disappeared in Sainte-Croix," the Vaud police said.

The suspect and the missing man lived in the Swiss border village, which is around 100 kilometres from Fedry.

The Vaud police said the woman in custody was under criminal investigation and was suspected of having set fire to her apartment on Sunday.

She was arrested by border guards shortly after the blaze and questioned.

"At this stage, she is still presumed innocent," police said.

The body found on the banks of the River Saone in Fedry was clad only in underwear and was "severed in two at the waist and covered in a white substance", said Arnaud Grecourt, prosecutor for Haute-Saone's Vesoul district.

It bore "a burn on the back, and several wounds on the skull, on one hand, the neck, and on the torso," he added.

According to the initial autopsy results, the victim appears to have died from bleeding caused by a stab wound to the chest. His body was apparently cut up after death.

The Vaud police said they were working with their French counterparts.