Neighbours today blamed drunken youths for killing a pensioner who went out of his home to remonstrate with them.
Owen Murphy (73) was found dead with a gash in the back of his head in an alleyway behind his home in Fort Street in the Springfield area of West Belfast.
Police were treating the death as suspicious but said they could not confirm what happened until a post mortem examination was carried out today.
One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said that people living in the street were tortured by young children and teenagers drinking and throwing bottles over their walls from the entry.
"I have been out a number of times with Mr Murphy to them and have had abuse thrown at me most times. We have been trying to get gates put across the alleyway to stop them coming in."
At the time that Mr Murphy was found around 10 o'clock last night his back door was lying open and there was a light on in the kitchen.
Local people believe he sustained his injury when he went out to challenge the drinkers.
The neighbour added: "Hopefully we will get gates on now, it's a bit late now that somebody has lost his life. We were always in fear when we went out the back, now it's even more frightening."