Acting Commissioner Vicks Hayward-Melen held up an image of the suspect at a press conference at the site this afternoon.

She said: "He was described as black with a beard."

"He was wearing a black Adidas baseball cap with a White motif, a black jacket with a motif on the chest and black trainers with thick white soles. "

"He is also believed to be wearing or have been wearing a gold earring and was carrying a black backpack."

The police chief added: "Officers are currently working to track his movements through CCTV and I can confirm that we know he left in the direction of Leigh Woods behind me."

"At this stage we are not aware of any current risk he poses to the wider public. However, if anyone sees him, we advise them not to approach him and please do call 999 immediately."

She confirmed a forensic postmortem investigation was underway but could not offer any further information on the identification of the victims for the time being: "We cannot confirm any information because that is still ongoing," she said."

She was also asked about parallels between the incident and Jack O'Sullivan's case, the university student who went missing more than four months ago after attending a party in Bristol.

The police chief added: "So I understand the parallels that might be made with with Jack's case and we would ask anybody to avoid any speculation at this time. "

"What I can confirm is just because of the nature of the incident and the concerns that people may have as you've pointed out there, a senior officer has been in contact with Jack's family to inform them of the incident, but I can confirm at this time that no parallels are being actively drawn."

She added: "Officers are currently working to track his movements through CCTV and I can confirm that we know he left in the direction of Leigh Woods behind me."

"At this stage we are not aware of any current risk he poses to the wider public. However, if anyone sees him, we advise them not to approach him and please do call 999 immediately."