Police in Toulon, France have arrested a 32-year-old man on suspicion of bludgeoning a man sleeping rough in Lyon to death with a concrete block, and who may have assaulted a homeless man in Rotterdam last week.

The man who was arrested is said to bear a resemblance to the perpetrator in Rotterdam, who hit a sleeping man on the head using paving slab, causing serious head trauma. The man is in a critical condition in hospital.

Police in Rotterdam said there is a strong likelihood it is the same man but there is no confirmation as yet, a spokesman told broadcaster NOS.

According to Le Parisien the man was arrested following an attack on a woman in a train at Toulon railway station.

The paper, which names the suspect as Levis E, from Cameroon, also reports that the man was under an order to leave French territory and that he is wanted for murders and attempted murders in Évry, Strasbourg and Dijon.

The Dutch suspect is known to have taken an international train heading for Brussels on November 5.