DNA evidence links a Cypriot man to the scene of a fatal arson attack at a newsagents in Stoke-on-Trent, a court has been told.

A policeman testifying in the trial of Kemal Kemalzade told a northern Cyprus court that the man's DNA matched that found on charred gas cylinders at the scene.

Turkish Cypriot deputy police inspector Eniz Aytan, a witness for the prosecution, told the court he had visited Britain several times to investigate the case against Kemalzade, 39, who was detained in northern Cyprus last year.

K emalzade has been charged with manslaughter for his alleged role in a 2000 explosion at a newsagents owned by his brother and sister-in-law in Stoke-onTrent. The blast killed their tenant, Colin Salt, who lived above the shop.

Kemalzade's brother and sister-in-law, Cinar and Sibel Kemalzade, were jailed in 2004 in Britain for manslaughter and plotting to blow up their shop to claim insurance money.

Kemalzade fled to northern Cyprus in 2001.

At the hearing, Aytan went through evidence against the defendant and told the court police had found Kemalzade's DNA on two cylinders at the scene.

But Kemalzade's lawyer, Mentes Aziz, said his client had worked at the shop before the explosion, which would explain why the DNA appeared on containers found there.

Kemalzade had been free on bail, but last week the court remanded him pending the outcome of the trial.