The woman was indentified as Diana Gabrielle O'Brien, a police spokesman told AFP.

She had been in China for less than two weeks when she was found dead in an apartment in Shanghai's Changning district before dawn on Monday, a police statement said.

The apartment building is near one of Shanghai's red light districts.

Police gave no other details about the case, other than to say they were investigating the case.

The 22-year-old British Colombia woman was an aspiring model who had come to Shanghai hoping to launch an international career, Toronto's Globe and Mail reported.

But her contract with a Chinese-based agency turned out to be a job as a bar dancer, according to the paper.

O'Brien had told a friend she was unhappy in China and would be returning home with weeks, the newspaper reported.

A representative of the Chinese modelling agency named by the Canadian paper refused to speak to AFP when contacted. The agency's website was no longer working.

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