A 26-year-old Polish man who died following a house party in Limerick was the victim of a serious assault, postmortem results have revealed.
The victim, whose name had not been released last night, was found with serious head injuries at a house in the Hawthorns estate of Brierfield, Castletroy, at 1am yesterday. He was taken to the Mid Western Regional Hospital but died at about 8am.
The 26-year-old had been attending a party with a number of Polish and Lithuanian nationals when he was found at the foot of the stairs.
His friends moved him to a house in the same estate where he had been living and the emergency services were called.
Gardaí initially believed the man might have fallen down the stairs. However, results of a postmortem carried out by State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy last evening revealed the 26-year-old was the victim of an assault.
"We are investigating on the basis that he was the victim of a serious assault as this is the indication of the postmortem results," said Supt John Kerin.
"Our investigation is now focused on who was at the party and we are treating the death as suspicious," he added.
The two houses in the Hawthorns estate were sealed off by gardaí for technical examination as part of the investigation.
Dr Cassidy arrived in Limerick at lunchtime yesterday and examined the scenes before carrying out the postmortem at the Mid Western Regional Hospital.
It is understood the victim, who suffered serious head injuries, also had a number of marks on his body, which were consistent with an assault.
Detectives have interviewed a number of people who attended the party and house-to-house inquiries were also being carried out yesterday. Some of those attending the party have denied that a dispute took place at the house, it is understood.