The family of a Sussex woman stabbed to death while backpacking in China have praised the authorities for arresting two men.

It is three years since Shirine Harburn, 30, was found dead on a mountain path in the Sichuan region. She had been stabbed 17 times.

Miss Harburn, a trained counsellor from Crawley, had been trekking through Asia with her boyfriend Colin Horsfield, 30, when she decided to walk alone up the mountain close to the town of Kangding.

A huge search was launched when she failed to return home and a team of 100 Chinese officers found her body at the end of a trail of blood in undergrowth 3,000ft up Paomao Hill.

Last year, a verdict of unlawful killing was recorded at an inquest in Crawley but Miss Harburn's family and partner were left no closer to finding her killer.

However, on the eve of the third anniversary of her death, senior detectives in the UK informed the family that two Chinese nationals had been arrested in March in China for murder and were awaiting trial.

Last night, in a joint statement, Mr Horsfield, also from Crawley, Miss Harburn's parents Sheila and Clive and her sisters Lianne, 31, and Kiera, 29, said: "This positive news has brought mixed emotions.

"Our grief feels raw again as we think about the horror of Shirine's murder more often.

"This information has opened up a new chapter in our search for answers.

"We are extremely grateful to the Chinese authorities for working so hard to solve Shirine's murder and for the considerable resources they assigned to the investigation.

"We wish to thank Sussex Police for visiting China twice in a family liaison role and for all the support they have given."

In April last year, two detectives from Sussex and a scenes of crime officer travelled to China to talk with officers in the case. The three returned to China in February with the results of forensic work carried out in the UK.

Shirine's family plan to travel to China for the trial in the next few months.