DETECTIVES were last night questioning three men after a man was found beaten to death in his home.

They were arrested after an ambulance crew found the badly beaten body of an Asian man in his house in Teak Street, Middlesbrough.

The three men in custody are all in their early 20s.

The victim, who is due to be formally identified today, was found by paramedics at around 9.45am yesterday.

Police cordoned off most of Teak Street and the alleyway adjoining nearby Myrtle Street, and spent yesterday conducting forensic and door-to-door inquiries.

A post-mortem examination carried at Middlesbrough General Hospital showed the man had died "as a result of a violent assault by someone using considerable force," said a police spokeswoman.

Residents in Teak Street, near Abingdon Road, said they were shocked that a murder had taken place in their neighbourhood.

Javed Ismail, councillor for the Abingdon Road area, said: "I have sympathy for the family concerned.

"The community will get behind this family and support them and prayers will be said in the mosque.

"In the Muslim faith, it is very good for the person to be buried straight away for the soul, but in this case it is out of the families hands and up to the police."

Bob Eastwood, the head- teacher at Abingdon Road Primary School, said: "This is a close knit area and something of this nature is devastating for morale."