A 32-year-old man was arrested yesterday on suspicion of murdering a Romanian man who was found dead in his car at the bottom of a 30-meter ravine near Hania, Crete, on Saturday.

The suspect was taken into custody at a police station in Athens. He left Crete on Saturday after telling his wife that his brother had been taken ill in Attica.

However, the police contacted the 32-year-old Albanian national on his mobile phone and convinced him to hand himself in for questioning.

The suspect, who was not named, is alleged to have hit the 32-year-old Romanian 15 times over the head with a blunt instrument. Police believe that he then put the victim’s body in the car and pushed it off the cliff. Officers did not say what the motive for the alleged murder might have been.