Foreign BofA Merrill Lynch banker linked to Hong Kong murders-source

HONG KONG, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A Bank of America Merrill Lynch employee was arrested in Hong Kong on Saturday in connection with the suspected murder of two women in the city's central Wan Chai district, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

According to a statement posted on the Hong Kong government website, police arrested a foreign man on Saturday after finding two women dead in an apartment in Wan Chai, an area known for its lively nightlife. The man has not been charged.

In response to queries, the Foreign Office in London said that a British national had been arrested in Hong Kong, without specifying the nature of the crime.

The body of one of the two victims had been hidden in a suitcase on the balcony, while the other, a foreign woman of between 25 and 30, was found lying inside the apartment with wounds to her neck and buttock, the statement said.

The man had called the police in the early hours of Saturday and asked them to investigate the case, the statement added, without identifying him.

Police have yet to respond to Reuters' questions about the arrested man's identity and nationality.

A Bank of America Merrill Lynch spokeswoman in New York declined to comment.

Violent crime is a rare occurrence in Hong Kong and the city's homicide rate is one of the lowest in the world.

In one of Hong Kong's most talked-about killings, the so-called "milkshake murder", a Merrill Lynch banker was clubbed to death in 2003 by his wife, who drugged him beforehand by serving him a milkshake full of sleeping pills. (Reporting by Anne Marie Roantree and Gregory Torode; Writing by Lisa Jucca; Editing by Alex Richardson and Sonya Hepinstall)