A 19-year-old Swedish woman who died after being stabbed in Den Bosch on Tuesday morning, had told the police she had been threatened by her ex-partner, news agency ANP said on Friday.

Saga Backman told police in August she was frightened of her ex and that he had been harrassing her. Police recommended she avoid all contact with him and keep a record of all incidents.

Her ex-boyfriend, a 22-year-old man from Utrecht, was arrested in connection with the attack on Tuesday evening. He will appear in court for a remand hearing on Friday.

The complaint against the young man was not yet being investigated by police. ‘With hindsight, we would rather have done things differently,’ a spokesman is quoted as saying by ANP. ‘But this is how we work with cases and unfortunately we can’t just change things.’

According to local media reports, Saga, her mother and sister moved to Den Bosch two years ago when her mother moved in with a Dutch man. She was in the final year of a pre-college Havo course.