A MAJOR investigation has been launched after the body of a man with serious head injuries was discovered by police who broke into his home.

The 39-year-old man, who has not been named by police, was found by officers at the terrace house he rented in Bank Cottages, Billington, at around 2.30pm yesterday.

Police were called after a concerned neighbour said he had not seen the man for several days and are treating the death as suspicious.

Neighbours last night said the man, who is orignally from the Billington area and has family living locally, had only been in the house around four months and was seldom seen during the day.

A post mortem examination was expected to be carried out today in a bid to discover what casued the man's injuries.

Inspector Stuart Bruce, of Blackburn police, said: "It is being treated as suspicious because we don't know at this stage how he came by his injuries.

"The post mortem will hopefully tell us whether he suffered internal bleeding or something else like a trauma injury. There are no signs of a break-in and we don't know how long he had been there.

"We were alerted by the ambulance service who told us a neighbour was concerned because they hadn't seen him for a while. We found him at the bottom of the stairs after gaining entry through the locked front door."

The Blackburn coroner has been informed of the death and an inquest is due to be opened.

Police were last night carrying out door-to-door inquiries in a bid to piece together the man's final movements.

The house and the back street were sealed and a police officer was guarding the cottage throughout the day.

One Bank Cottages resident, who asked not to be named, said: "We didn't see much of him. He'd only been here for about four months and I don't even know what he did or what his name was.

"I'm surprised this has happened because he seemed so young."

Another neighbour said: "I just spoke to him once after he started renting the house. He was very quiet and I barely saw him. "