A British businessman has been charged with murder in Hong Kong after an Indonesian housekeeper was found dead at the bottom of a waterfall.

The 34-year-old, who has not been named, was arrested with his wife at a train station on Tuesday as they returned from mainland China.

According to police, he went to Waterfall Bay Park in Pok Fu Lam with the victim late on Sunday evening, but was seen 40 minutes later getting into a taxi alone.

He then immediately left Hong Kong, police said.

The victim, a 25-year-old woman, was seen floating beneath the waterfall at around 7am on Monday, where she was pronounced dead at the scene.

She is believed to have drowned after being hit with a hard object, according to local reports.

Police said that an initial post-mortem examination revealed the cause of death to be “asphyxiation by drowning” and that head injuries were also detected.

”The evidence did not appear to suggest a natural death,” police superintendent Sin Kwok-ming told reporters.

The suspect and victim knew each other but the housekeeper was not employed by the Briton, police said.

“We found so many unreasonable things related to the arrested man. He didn’t report to the police and immediately left Hong Kong after the incident. Some evidence related to him had disappeared too,” Supt Sin said.