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THE body of a man was found this morning in a quiet back street near Mornington Crescent.

 

Police were called to Clarkson Row – behind the art deco Black Cat cigarette factory on Hampstead Road – at dawn following the discovery and have spent all day checking the scene and surrounding streets.A police spokesman said the death was 'unexplained' and a post-mortem would be carried out in the coming days. “Enquiries are on going," he added.

 

A forensic team worked through the day at the scene. The body was still in the small car park, used by tenants in a council block next door, at 5.15pm this afternoon, with the area cordoned off.

 

Other officers conducted a finger tip search of surrounding streets: teams searched beneath cars, while their colleagues used sticks to sift through front gardens. More officers were seen searching the railway lines opposite.

 

Staff at the near-by Victoria pub, who did not want to be named, said they did not believe the body had been there when they closed the night before.  

 

One said: “We were told the body was lying half in and half out of a set of bushes. They say he was dressed in workman's clothes, but wasn't wearing any shoes.”

 

Staff working at Globe Garage, a stones'-throw from the car park, said they had turned up for work as normal and the place was full of police in uniform.  “It must have happened overnight as we left work yesterday and every thing was normal," said one member of staff.

 

Patrick McInerney, who has lived in Camden Town since the early 1960s, said police had combed his back garden.

 

He said: “I heard nothing overnight. The first any of us knew about it was when police officers came knocking on the doors.” 

 

His neighbour Alfred Kewal, said he had lived in the street for 10 years and said police on the beat were a regular sight.

 

He said: “It is very quiet round here, but it didn't use to be. There are always a lot of police patrols. You just do not expect these things to happen here.”