A woman whose body was discovered in Spain more than 20 years ago has been identified through an international police campaign.

The woman was named on Thursday as 31-year-old Russian citizen Liudmila Zavada.

She is the third person to be identified through the Operation Identify Me initiative, which was launched by police in 2023 in an effort to find the names of women who had been murdered or died in suspicious or unexplained circumstances in Europe.

The first case was a British woman murdered in Belgium, whose family identified her after seeing a photograph of her tattoo in a BBC News report.

Valdecy Urquiza, secretary general of international policing agency Interpol which leads the campaign, said the latest identification would give fresh hope to the families and friends of missing persons and new leads to investigators.

After 20 years, an unknown woman has been given back her name, he said.

Ms Zavada's body was discovered in July 2005 beside a road in the province of Barcelona in northeastern Spain.

She was referred to by police as the woman in pink, because she was dressed in a pink floral top, pink trousers and pink shoes.

Local police said the cause of death was suspicious, as evidence suggested that the body had been moved in the 12 hours before it was found.

Investigations failed to uncover her identity until the case was added to Operation Identify Me last year, which saw Interpol release black notices seeking information about unidentified bodies to the public.

Earlier this year, Turkish police ran the fingerprints through a national database, uncovering Ms Zavada's identity. A DNA match was then established with a close relative in Russia.

Police investigations into Ms Zavada's death and the circumstances surrounding it are continuing.

The campaign has also led to the identification of other victims, including Rita Roberts from Wales and Ainoha Izaga Ibieta Lima from Paraguay.

Interpol noted that the increased challenges of identifying missing persons arise from global migration and escalation in gender-based violence.