Canberra: A 29-year-old man has been charged with murder as an alleged infatuation with a British woman emerged focus of a police investigation into her stabbing death at an Australian backpackers hostel.

French-Algerian man Smail Ayad had met Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, just days earlier as her roommate at the hostel in Home Hill, where he was arrested on Tuesday for stabbing her, the Guardian reported.