London - A 33-year-old unemployed man appeared in court in London Thursday charged with the brutal murder of two French students who were gagged, stabbed and set alight in their flat in the British capital on June 29.

Nigel Farmer will be tried at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in October, charged with double murder, arson and attempting to pervert the course of justice, the magistrates' court at Greenwich, south London, said.

Police said they have made two more arrests in connection with the murder of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, whose badly-burned bodies were covered with more than 250 stab wounds.

Scotland Yard, which has expressed shock at the violence of the attack, said a 35-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman were arrested in south London late Thursday.

The French students, who were on a summer exchange at Imperial College, London, had been due to return to France later this month. (dpa)