Police to 'saturate' Bundoora area where exchange student Aiia Maasarwe was killed
Peter Lusted
3 hrs ago
Victorian police officers will "saturate" the area where 21-year-old Aiia Maasarwe was killed until her attacker is found, in a bid to calm rising community fears about safety.
Police believe the Arab-Israeli exchange student was attacked about 12:10am on Wednesday morning, shortly after getting off a Route 86 tram near the intersection of Plenty Road and Main Drive in Bundoora.
The university where she was studying, La Trobe, whose Bundoora campus in Melbourne's north-east is close to where she was attacked, has committed to addressing student concerns about safety on public transport in the area.
Ms Maasarwe had been attending a comedy show in North Melbourne, and was a little over one kilometre from home when she was attacked.
Her body was found by passers-by just after dawn on Wednesday, behind a hedge near the entrance to Polaris shopping centre.
Police yesterday appealed for public help to find her killer, saying Ms Maasarwe was the innocent victim of a "horrendous, horrific attack".
Victoria Police's Acting Superintendent for the North West Metro Region, Tony Ryan, said police would be out in force to try to ease community fears that the attacker is still in the community.
"We've got an ongoing effort to saturate the area as much as we possibly can," Superintendent Ryan said.
"We've got uniform cars, we're supported by the operational response unit, we've got detectives, we've got our community police, we've got transit working on the tram lines.