French police said yesterday they have been scouring the Paris region for the Canadian former gay porn star suspected of killing and carving up his Chinese boyfriend as his videocamera rolled.

He dismembered his boyfriend and then mailed the body parts

Investigators were certain that Luca Rocco Magnotta “is or was in the Paris region and particularly in Paris since at least Friday,” a police source said, citing witnesses and material evidence.

With the help of Mr Magnotta’s cell phone signal, police have traced him to a hotel in the suburb of Bagnolet, which they visited Saturday on a tip-off from a witness, a source close to the investigation said yesterday.

Mr Magnotta, who has become known as the ‘Canadian psycho’, had left his hotel room where investigators found itemssuch as pornographic magazines and airsick bags bearing the logo of the airline onwhich he left Canada for France more than a week ago.

His cell phone signal was detected on Saturday in the east of Paris, the source added. Mr Magnotta, 29, allegedly filmed himself as he dismembered his boyfriend and then mailed the body parts.

French police have been carrying out “targeted searches” for Mr Magnotta after Canadian investigators said the suspect boarded a France-bound plane on May 26 in Montreal. They have searched a bar and two hotels in the trendy northwestern district of Batignolles in the French capital.

A witness said he saw police on Friday visit the bar Le Petit Batignolles where they viewed security camera footage, showed a photo of the suspect to the manager and left with empty bottles of Coke. On Saturday the manager denied any visit by police.

The daily Le Parisien reported yesterday that investigators had questioned themanager of a bar in the northern area of Batignolles who said Mr Magnotta had a Coke there late Wednesday.

“He was very nervous (and) he drank the Coke in one go. A man with an impressive physique came into the bar and started talking to him. They knew each other,” the manager said, adding that the pair left together.

The daily also cited witness accounts that were “considered reliable” that the suspect was seen in two northern Paris suburbs.

The suspect has been dubbed Canadian psycho by the press because a video circulating online and believed to be linked to him shows a man stab another man with an ice pick and dismember him while a song from the film American Psycho plays inthe background.

Interpol on Thursday issued a Red Notice wanted-persons alert for Mr Magnotta, also known as Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov, to its 190 member countries after a video of the grisly killing surfaced online. The killing came to light when Canadian police said a human foot had been sent to the headquarters of Canada’s ruling Conservative Party. A hand was later found in the mail at an Ottawa post office, and a torso was discovered in Montreal.