Egypt police have identified and arrested those involved in the killing of a university student whose death has sparked public outrage over the past few days.

Bassam Osama, 23, was strangled to death by the father of his fiancée who then buried him in a gaping hole in an apartment kitchen that he tiled afterwards.

The father, a 55-year-old former chemist, said in a video broadcast on TV late on Wednesday that he killed Osama because the boy had revealed his "life secret" that he was fleeing a life sentence in a drug-trafficking case and had heard from his daughter that Osama was about to report him to authorities. The father had even forged a death certificate and lived incognito for years.

In the video, he appeared at an apartment in a leafy suburb east of Cairo where the incident took place and acted how he carried out the murder before he got into a police vehicle handcuffed.

The interior ministry said late on Wednesday it has identified and arrested seven others who aided and abetted the man in the murder, including his daughter Habiba who deceived her fiancé into going to the apartment in Al Rehab city where he was killed, and six other men.

The body of the victim was pulled out of the hole where it was buried, the ministry said.

Police was first informed about the matter after the victim's brother reported his disappearance. The brother said in TV comments on Wednesday that Osama informed him that he was going to meet Habiba who called him hours later to say Osama did not show up. The brother claims Habiba knew about the crime.