A man accused of shooting himself in the leg to fake a carjacking after he shot his girlfriend in the head has been seized by police.

Suspect Reycharleson Nicolau, 28, is said to have shot 21-year-old victim Yasmin Sousa da Silva at her home in Belford Roxo, Brazil, after she dumped him.

He then – reports local media – shot himself and drove her to hospital, claiming they had been the victims of a bungled carjacking.

The picture here shows Nicolau at the hospital with his leg heavily bandaged over the gunshot wound on 28th January.

Yasmin died soon after reaching the Ismarelia da Silveira Children’s Hospital in Duque de Caxias and was buried near her home.

But suspicious police checking Nicolau’s story couldn’t find a single witness or CCTV footage to back up his carjacking story, reports local media.

And when they interviewed Yasmin’s neighbours they were told Nicolou had been seen arriving at her home with a gun in his hand.

Police arrested Nicolau – who has a history of inflicting domestic violence- after forensic experts revealed that he had shot himself.

Further tests revealed that a gun he owned was the weapon that killed Yasmin.

The investigation is continuing and Nicolau has been remanded in custody after the judge Mariana Tavares Shu ruled that the seriousness of the offence, coupled with the chance that he might abscond, meant that he needed to be kept locked up.