POLICE hunting the killer of a 77-year-old Georgina Edmonds at Brambridge have arrested four residents of an ex-offenders' hostel near the murder scene.

The four men were arrested at 7.40am today (January 14) at the hostel, Elderfield House.

All four suspects, aged 21, 28, 36 and 37, have been taken to police stations around Hampshire and will be questioned by detectives later today.

At a press conference this afternoon, Detective Chief Inspector Paul Barton said enquiries into the brutal murder were continuing.

"These men have merely been arrested on suspicion," he said. "It's only one of the lines of inquiry we're following at this stage. We're keeping on with the inquiry."

The number of officers assigned to the case has been more than doubled, to 150, DCI Barton said. "The tempo's been upped considerably."

Mrs Edmonds' body was found by her son and a friend at 5.45pm on Friday at her home in Kiln Lane at Brambridge, between Winchester and Eastleigh.

A post mortem found she had died of multiple head injuries.

The house where she lived alone, Fig Tree Cottage, is less than a mile from Elderfield House, which is at the Otterbourne end of Kiln Lane.

The hostel, run by a Christian charity, was the home of serial sex attacker Anthony Rice when he killed Naomi Bryant in Winchester in August 2005.

Rice stabbed the 40-year-old mother nine months after being freed from jail for sex attacks. He was jailed for a minimum of 25 years for her murder in October 2005.

Otterbourne Parish Council has since voiced unease about the hostel.