Brazilian police yesterday arrested a man accused of having decapitated and mutilated his British teenage girlfriend after a spat over drugs, a spokesman said.

The Brazilian man confessed to having killed Cara Marie Burg, aged 17, on Saturday in the central city of Goiania after she threatened to tell authorities he was a drug dealer, Lenita Alves de Brito, spokesman for local police, said.

On Monday, police found an abandoned suitcase with her headless and limbless body, which Cara's mother identified on pictures that were distributed by Interpol, Ms Brito said.

Goiania lies some 200 kilometres southwest of the capital Brasilia.

Ms Burg had shared an apartment for three months with the man, whom she had met in Britain, Ms Brito said.

Police found drugs in his apartment.