Dubai: Suzan Tamim's suspected killer, a 39-year-old Arab national, was arrested in an Arab country three days after the Lebanese singer was found dead in her apartment in Dubai, police said on Sunday.

Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Acting Chief of Dubai Police, confirmed that the suspected murderer was identified five hours after the police surveyed Tamim's apartment, but was arrested three days later because he fled the UAE immediately after committing the murder.

Police refused to identify his nationality and the country where he was arrested.

In Cairo, an Egyptian police source told Gulf News that two Egyptian nationals had been arrested in connection with the murder.

Arabic newspapers reported that an Egyptian businessman and two security men were involved in the crime. An Egyptian confessed that he committed the crime in return for $2 million. However, Dubai police did not confirm the reports.

Al Mazeina said that Tamim did not know her killer but he had tricked the singer into letting him into her apartment by pretending to be a representative of the real estate company from which she had bought her flat.

In less than 12 minutes the killer had entered the building, slit Tamim's throat and then rushed to Dubai International Airport.

Dubai Police earlier said the 31-year-old singer was killed several hours before her body was discovered.

Police had received a report from one of her relatives who lived in Sharjah, and went to her apartment at Burj Al Remal building in Dubai Marina on Monday night where they discovered her body.

Suzan had been living alone in the building for the past eight months. A former winner of the Lebanese talent show Studio Al Fan in 1996, Suzan enjoyed many hit singles during her early career.