AS the drizzle fell on Holywells Park, this December day broke to a grim scene.Police cars flanked the entrances of the normally busy Ipswich park, after reports that a body had been found in a pond close to the children's play area.

By Jessica Nicholls

AS the drizzle fell on Holywells Park, this December day broke to a grim scene.

Police cars flanked the entrances of the normally busy Ipswich park, after reports that a body had been found in a pond close to the children's play area.

The park, which is normally buzzing with children's voices and walkers was silent after a dog walker taking an early morning stroll stumbled across the terrible find.

Officers were stationed at gates denying entry to all in case any evidence was disturbed, while others set about scouring every inch of the park within the cordon.

Ipswich Borough Council workers arriving on the scene were also refused entry to the park.

Police looked for clues to work out what had happened in the person's last few minutes of life.

Concerned residents peered from windows in streets surrounding the park, but life and traffic carried on as normal along Cliff Lane.

Residents and shopkeepers began to gather as the news spread, and more police officers were drafted in to investigate at the scene.

By about 9am, six police cars alone blocked the Cliff Lane entrance to the park, and an ambulance had left the scene.

At the parade of shops in Cliff Lane, customers wondered if the man found dead was a loner who had been camping in the park over Christmas.

He had been living in a bivouac.

The general feeling seemed to be one of sadness rather than shock, that somebody had died.

Richard Andrews, owner of Déjà Vu antiques and collectables in Cliff Lane, said: "The first I heard about it was when I arrived at the shop this morning to find the area swarming with police.

"Everybody is asking what has happened, and whether it would turn out to be someone we knew."

Sheila Jordan, of Elmshurst Drive, whose garden backs onto the park. "I was on my way to work and saw the tail lights of the ambulance and thought it was stopping at the flats, but it went into the park. There are loads of dog walkers about at that time so I thought someone had had a heart attack. But I am shocked to hear it was a body."