Police in Britain investigating the murder of Sabina Nessa, a teacher who was found dead in a southeast London park last weekend, said they arrested a 38-year-old man on Sunday.

Primary school teacher Nessa, 28, was killed after leaving her home to go to a bar just a five-minute walk away, in the latest case to galvanise public concern about women's safety in the UK.

Detectives from London's Metropolitan Police took the suspect into custody in the early hours of Sunday at an address in East Sussex, a county southeast of the British capital.

Detective Chief Inspector Neil John, from the Met's specialist crime command, called the arrest a "significant development".

Two other men arrested this week on suspicion of murder have been released pending further investigation.

Hundreds of people held a vigil on Friday evening in the southeast London neighbourhood of Kidbrooke, where Nessa lived and her body was discovered last Saturday.

The murder echoes the high-profile killing in March of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, which focused attention on what is being called an epidemic of violence against women.