A 28-year-old Russian woman who had been missing since late July has been found dead inside a suitcase in a canal on the outskirts of Belgrade. A 25-year-old Turkish national has been arrested over her murder after allegedly attempting to flee Serbia.

The body was discovered on Thursday evening by local residents near a canal in Padinska Skela, a sparsely populated area on the far side of the Danube, well outside Belgrade’s city centre. It was taken for a forensic examination and subsequently identified as Lyudmila Turkova, the Russian woman whom Serbian authorities had been searching for over the preceding days.

According to Serbia’s Ministry of Interior, the main suspect is a 25-year-old Turkish national who was arrested at Belgrade Airport as he attempted to leave the country. Authorities have not released his identity.

Investigators believe Turkova was murdered in the early hours of 26 July inside a rented flat in the Borča district of Belgrade. The suspect is then alleged to have placed her body in a suitcase, transported it to the Vizelj canal and abandoned it there in an attempt to cover his tracks.

Turkova was last heard from on the evening of 25 July, when she stopped responding to messages from friends. Her disappearance was reported to the authorities, whose investigation ultimately led to the discovery of her body and the arrest of the main suspect.

The case is now in the hands of Serbian prosecutorial authorities, who are continuing to investigate the circumstances and motive behind the killing, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.