DETECTIVES investigating the murder of a North-East student yesterday unveiled plans for mass DNA testing of men who live nearby.

Sara Cameron, 23, a second-year international sports management student at Northumbria University, was suffocated late on April 20 as she made her way from Shiremoor Metro Station to the nearby village of Earsdon, near Whitley Bay, North Tyneside.

Miss Cameron, a former Finnish national youth sprinter, was going home following an evening with friends in Newcastle city centre celebrating a six-month work placement at the Olympics in Sydney, which she was to have started on May 1.

Detective Superintendent Steve Bolam, of Northumbria Police, said all men who lived near Earsdon would be tested and the results compared to a DNA profile of the killer which forensic scientists have obtained from the scene.

The DNA profile was "a significant breakthrough", Mr Bolam told a news conference.

"This crime has all the hallmarks of someone with a good local knowledge, particularly of the fields in the area between Shiremoor, Earsdon and Wellfield," he said.

"The DNA profile will now enable us to eliminate people from our inquiry.

"These sorts of screenings do not happen very often and we are absolutely determined to catch the killer."

Miss Cameron's father, Roy, 61, from Paignton, Devon, urged residents to cooperate with the police, saying: "This is the first step forward that we have had."

It is expected that more than 1,000 men within the three areas could be asked to take part.

Scientists taking a DNA swab use a small brush and scrape the inside of the person's mouth.

The sample is then analysed and compared to the profile of the killer.

Mr Bolam refused to say that any man refusing to give a swab would automatically be considered a suspect, adding that he hoped everyone would cooperate with the operation.