Two French biochemistry students found brutally murdered in a South London bedsit may have died for the sake of two handheld games consoles, police said last night.

Officers investigating the horrific killings of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, who were tied up and stabbed nearly 250 times before being set on fire, believe that two Sony PSP games consoles were stolen from the flat on the day of their deaths.

They are also exploring whether the men, both 23, may have been killed by the same burglar who targeted the premises six days earlier. The possibility that they could have been tortured for their PINs is another line of inquiry. The details emerged as Mr Ferez’s grandmother reported that the students had described the harshness of life in the capital days earlier.

“Gabriel was an angel, a brave boy. He was e-mailing me right up until Sunday and made it clear that he was finding life in London tough,” Réjane Ferez said. Mr Ferez is understood to have been particularly close to his paternal grandmother after his parents’ recent divorce.

“It was not an easy place for him and Laurent to live. It was a harsh place. Laurent had to organise his life while spending up to 11 hours a day at college. Combined with all the other pressures of life in such a city, it was not easy. Gabriel loved travelling and had recently spent time in Mexico, but nothing had prepared him for London.”

Speaking from her house in the family’s hometown of Amiens, northern France — where the student’s father, Olivier, and sister, Helène, also live — Mrs Ferez added: “Life in London could also be very lonely. Both Gabriel and Laurent were missing their close friends and family. They were greatly looking forward to getting back home.”

Neighbours had put a notice asking for “Respect” outside the modest cottage with green shutters and rosebushes where Mr Ferez’s mother has lived with a companion for the past four years.

Guy Le Blanche, headmaster of the Lycée Louis Thuillier, remembered Mr Ferez as a calm, joyous, jovial boy. “I am shattered by this massacre in London,” he said. “The staging, the torture, like a satanic rite, is abominable.”

Mr Le Blanche plans to pay tribute to Mr Ferez at an assembly of the region’s exam prizewinners next month. Villagers are planning to attend the funeral.

Mr Bonomo, a student in the field of proteins that cause infectious disease, had been stabbed 196 times. More than half the injuries are thought to have been inflicted after he died. Mr Ferez, who hoped to become an expert in ecofriendly fuels, suffered 47 separate injuries.

A police source told The Times that whatever the motive, it did not explain the ferocity of the attacks. “What sane person can understand why you would stab someone 196 times and then set them on fire?”

Speaking at the scene of the double murder in New Cross yesterday, Detective Chief Inspector Mick Duthie confirmed that two Sony PSP consoles, costing £130 each, were stolen from Mr Bonomo’s rented flat. Police fear that a set of keys to the flat, which were stolen in the earlier burglary, may have enabled the attacker to surprise his victims. Officers are also looking for a black Packard Bell laptop that was taken in the previous burglary while Mr Bonomo was in the shower.

Mr Ferez, who lived in South Norwood, had travelled to spend the evening at his close friend’s flat, where they were playing computer games.

“We are keen to hear from anyone who has recently been offered a laptop and two personal games consoles, or knows someone who has unexpectedly come to have them,” Mr Duthie said. “The search of the address is not yet completed, but we have established that two Sony PSPs are missing and believe they were taken during the incident on Sunday when the two men were killed.”

Police have also appealed for witnesses who may have seen a white man running away from the scene shortly after the fire took hold. Mr Duthie said that it was possible the fire was premeditated as they had found a container at the scene and there is no evidence that Mr Bonomo had flammable liquids in the flat.

Both students’ families were devastated, the officer added. “They are distraught, their lives have fallen to bits. Both sets of parents were so proud of what their sons had achieved so far.”

It is believed that the Frenchmen were dead before the fire started. Neighbours dialled 999 after an explosion blew out windows and ignited a fierce blaze at about 10pm on Sunday. They called out to find out if anyone was in the flat but had no response.

The successful biochemistry students were in the second year of a three-year masters degree at the Polytech Clermont-Ferrand in central France. They were both described as very popular characters.

They had been selected to take part in a three-month research project at Imperial College and were due to return home this month. Officers said yesterday that they were following up about 25 calls that had been received about the murders.

Last night there was no answer at the Bonomo family’s villa on the outskirts of the village of La Veranne in Aix-en-Provence.

Neighbours said that the family had lived in the village for several years but had agreed recently to sell the house and were preparing to move to Paris. The six-bedroom villa, with a half-acre of landscape gardens and outside swimming pool, was being guarded by local police last night.

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