A man who sparked a murder inquiry after his body was found by residents at a block of flats, died of natural causes.

Residents at the flats in Wakefield Road in the Townhill area of the city, alerted police to the body lying in a stairwell at 6am on Saturday morning.

The death was immediately treated as suspicious.

The flats and a section of Wakefield Road were sealed off until 8pm while a police forensic team carried out a detailed search of the area.

However, yesterday police confirmed the body was that of a homeless man in his 50s who had been sleeping rough and that a post-mortem revealed he died of natural causes.

Police cordons were then lifted at the flats, but residents were still haunted by the grim discovery.

One told the Daily Echo the man had been covered in blood and said she had been unable to sleep on Saturday night. "I didn't want to open the door this morning," she said.

Another, a middle-aged man, who was the first to find the body and called the police, placed flowers near the spot where the man was found.

He said: "I was leaving the flats to go out when I found him. I just wish I could have done something to help him."

Det Insp David Powell at Bitterne CID said: "We would like to thank the local people for their patience. When we got the initial call we had to treat it as suspicious and secure all available evidence.

"It's only when we have done that that we can release the scene."