Police in India's southern city of Chennai on Saturday said they had managed to arrest eight suspects in connection with the murder of a local political leader.

K. Armstrong, the Tamil Nadu state leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), was hacked to death with machetes near his home in Chennai on Friday night.

What is known about the killing

Local media reported that Armstrong had been talking to friends and supporters near his home, when he was set upon by men with knives, traveling on motorbikes who then reportedly escaped before any intervention could be made.

Armstrong was taken to hospital for treatment but succumbed to his injuries, according to authorities.

Police said they then managed to trace eight suspects "within hours of the incident and arrested them."

Mayawati, the national head of Armstrong's BSP, who uses just one name, said the attack was "highly deplorable and condemnable."

"The state government must punish the guilty," she said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said "Mr. Armstrong's assassination is shocking and deeply saddening" and called for police to bring those responsible to justice.

Indian broadcaster NDTV cited a senior police official as saying that the killing could be linked to the death of an underworld figure last year.

"We are conducting an investigation. The murder seems to be linked to an earlier killing," NDTV quoted the police source as saying.

kb/rc (AFP, DW sources)