MYSTERY today surrounds the death of a man found lying in a rubbish-strewn alley way near Felixstowe seafront.Police said there were no suspicious circumstances but did not yet know how the man had died or how long he had been in the passage.

MYSTERY today surrounds the death of a man found lying in a rubbish-strewn alley way near Felixstowe seafront.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances but did not yet know how the man had died or how long he had been in the passage.

Residents said they were shocked at the incident but it was not a route regularly used by anyone, except to get to and from back gardens.

Police were called at 3.30pm yesterday after the body of the 59-year-old was discovered in the alley, which runs between two houses in Holland Road, just yards from the main seafront.

Officers cordoned off the area while they investigated and the scene was still out of bounds today, with blue and white police tape across both entrances.

The alley runs along the rear of homes in Holland Road and also at the back of Bethesda Baptist Church, coming out onto Langer Road.

The alley is overgrown with grass and weeds and littered with dumped sacks of old rubbish, discarded furniture and parts of a bathroom suite.

One resident said: "It was quite a shock when I found out that someone had been laying dead down there.

"I walked past earlier in the day but I didn't look down the alley, so I couldn't say whether there was anybody there then or not.

"It's a sad way to go – not like being in your armchair in your nice warm house."

She said the passage way led to back yards of the properties in Holland Road and Cavendish Road but people did not use it as a cut-through.

"Sometimes kids will run up and down it and play around there, but there is so much rubbish and it's all muddy that no-one really bothers with it," she added.

Another resident said he had seen the police cars arrive but had not known what they were dealing with.

"I think that's very sad. There were quite a few people about yesterday because there always is on a Sunday because of people coming down to the market and seafront, but I never noticed anything unusual," he said.

A police spokeswoman said formal identification of the dead man had not been carried out.

There were no suspicious circumstances and a post mortem would be carried out today. The coroner has been informed.