A Jewish Moroccan couple were killed last week by their gardener, who then buried their remains in various sites across Casablanca.

According to local news reports, Sam Tolédano and Vicky Chetrit were murdered by their employee, who was said to have perpetrated the killings in order to steal their money and possessions.

Police who visited the couple’s home after members of the Jewish community in Casablanca reported them as missing, used UV light to find traces of blood.

In a statement, police stressed that the motive of the crime was theft of jewellery, adding: “This case has no link whatsoever with any terrorist act.”

News site Diaspora Saharaui, which publishes critical articles of Morocco, has urged the police to consider the couple’s religion as being another motive for the murders.

It wrote: “Moroccan authorities tried to present the crime as motivated by greed, but a simple thief would not have mutilated the bodies and dispersed their parts across the city.”

But Rabbi Levi Banon, a Chabad rabbi in Casablanca, argued that the murder “was not racially motivated at all”, telling the Jerusalem Post that such claims are “far from the fact”.