Rough sleeper found dead on city street

SHOCK AND ANGER OVER DEATH DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS

- CHRIS SLATER

THE death of a rough sleeper just days before Christmas has left people shocked and saddened that such tragedies are still happening on the streets of our city.

The man was discovered in the Northern Quarter early yesterday.

Emergency services raced to the scene at the junction of Copperas Street and William Fairburn Way shortly before 7am, but attempts to save the man were unsuccessful.

The area was taped off while police carried out enquiries with a private ambulance later seen arriving at the scene.

Detectives say there are believed to be no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the man who the M.E.N. understands had been sleeping rough in the area.

His age and no further details about him have yet been released.

A man who works in a building nearby and who saw police and paramedics working on the man as he arrived for work is among those to have expressed his devastation.

"I've been told it was the binmen who found him," he said. "There was a wardrobe with a mattress behind it and he was on there.

"I got here about 10 past seven and there was a paramedic and two police officers working on him. Then not long after they put a sheet over him.

"There was a woman sat on some stairs nearby who was crying her eyes out.