CHICAGO - A 25-year-old female Chinese student of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) was killed Friday noon in her apartment a few blocks north of the campus, police said.

Local police told Chinese reporters that they have arrested the victim's ex-boyfriend, who is a doctorate student at UIUC, as a suspect.

The authorities declined to identify the victim, but said they have informed the relatives of the victim. They did not say how the woman was killed.

Earlier reports quoted Lt. Bryant Seraphin as saying that the victim's roommate was in the apartment but had been bound when the Chinese girl was killed.

The roommate then broke free and called the police, according to the officer.