Police hunting the killer of a teenage British backpacker in Australia yesterday released an e-fit image of a man they would like to trace.

The man was seen walking behind 19-year-old Caroline Stuttle, from York, shortly before she was killed in the Queensland town of Bundaberg.

Detectives believe the teenager struggled with a robber before being thrown off the 65ft-high bridge over the river Burnett on Wednesday night.

Her body was found by one bank of the river and her sandals on the other side. Her handbag and mobile phone were missing.

A post-mortem found she died of massive head and spinal injuries consisted with such a fall. Some minor injuries also appeared to have been inflicted before the fall.

Yesterday detectives released an electronic image of a white man, aged 25 to 30, with collar-length brown hair, who was seen by several people walking behind Caroline before she died.

He was describes as muscular and was dressed like a jogger, with a multi-coloured vertical striped T-shirt, shorts and trainers.

Police would not describe him as a suspect but insisted: "We think he can assist us with our inquiries."

Three men who were being sought in the immediate aftermath of Caroline's death have now been traced and are not considered to be suspects.

Caroline was enjoying a gap year break, backpacking with close friend Sarah Holiday, aged 20 and also from York, before taking up a place at Manchester University to read psychology.

She was killed on her way back to the caravan park where the pair were staying after making a phone call to her boyfriend back in the UK.

Caroline's distraught father Alan, who runs an art gallery in York and lives in Scarborough, said yesterday: "I'll never get over it and neither will her mother or close friends.

"She was a wonderful daughter, a credit to us and herself. It has been a very, very painful day."

He added: "It's an awful thing to live with for the rest of our life. I can't believe she died all for the sake of her handbag and mobile phone."