Swedish authorities have arrested and held a person on suspicion of aiding and abetting the murder of two British citizens who were found dead in a burnt-out car in Malmö.

The two victims, whose identities have been confirmed by the prosecutor as Farooq Abdulrazak, 37, and Juan Cifuentes, 33, were found dead on 14 July.

The two men from north London were reported missing by their families days before the incident after failing to return home from a business trip to Denmark and Sweden.

The prosector’s office said on Thursday the suspect would be questioned and held for a maximum of three days while investigations continued between Swedish and British authorities.

Magnus Pettersson, the senior prosecutor leading the investigation, said: “The investigation has now reached a point where a person has today been served with suspicion regarding involvement in the events that led to two people being found dead on July 14. There will now be interrogations, both with the suspect and others. After that, I will take a position on the continued deprivation of liberty.

“In parallel with that, other investigative work is ongoing in the form of technical investigation, collection and analysis of digital evidence and other things. This work takes place both here in Sweden and in Great Britain.”

Malmö police and the Metropolitan police in the UK said they were unable to comment on the case.

Pettersson told the Guardian: “I can confirm that one person is being held for aiding and abetting the murder of the two persons mentioned below [Abdulrazak and Cifuentes]. We will not comment anything more about the investigation at this point.”

Under Swedish law, the prosecutor’s office now has until midday on 1 September to decide whether or not the arrested person should be remanded in custody.