A MURDER investigation has been launched following the discovery of a dead body in Colchester this morning.

A MURDER investigation has been launched following the discovery of a dead body in a north Essex town this morning.

Police were contacted shortly after 11am yesterday following concerns about the welfare of a man living in a flat on Charles Pell Road, Colchester.

Officers arrived and found the property empty. Further enquiries led them to the discovery of the man's body at a nearby flat on the same road shortly after 2am this morning. This property was uninhabited at the time.

Detectives believe the body to be that of a man in his 50s. A post-mortem examination has taken place with provisional results showing that the man may have been strangled and stabbed in the abdomen.

A 21-year-old man from the town was arrested later on this morning in connection with the death and is being questioned by detectives at Colchester police station. A second local man, age 35, was arrested this afternoon.