British Police have launched a murder hunt after the discovery of a body in Berkshire. Eyewitnesses said the body of a man was lying on the pavement by the A30 in Sunningdale, close to the junction with Cedar Drive. Thames Valley Police said: "Following the discovery of body on London Road in Sunningdale this afternoon, police have launched a murder enquiry. "A number of people have been arrested.
The road is currently closed and will be for the foreseeable future." One eyewitness said the body, which is covered with a green tarpaulin, lies within a police cordon manned by at least 10 officers. He said three men, all aged between 40 and 50, were led from a white van and arrested at about 1pm.
Eyewitness Amit Yadiv told Sky News: "There were four white men in the van, three in the fornt, one in the back. The guy in the back jumped down and ran off. "The body, I believe, was in the back." Sky's crime correspondent Martin Brunt said: "It's still unclear what has happened but it looks more like a kidnap situation rather than an armed robbery, unless there had been an armed robbery elsewhere before the van arrived in Sunningdale." Another eyewitness reported seeing three men being held on the ground by police, and suggested that a fourth suspect may have fled.
Amanda Bealin, a secretary from estate agency Hamptons, said the incident took place between 2pm and 3pm just down the road from her branch. "The police took three people out of the van and cuffed them on the floor, then they opened up the back and there were two bodies there," she said. Ms Bealin added that she believed a fourth man in the front of the van fled the scene as the others were being held.
A local businessman said he suspected an armed robbery had been foiled by police. He said: "We did not hear any shots and we do not know how the man came to be there." A spokesman for South Central Ambulance Service said: "We received a call at 13.56 from Thames Valley Police to a level crossing in London Road, Sunningdale. "It came in as a male assaulted, breathing shallow." Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance went to the scene, along with a Basics doctor and a rapid response vehicle but the man was not taken to hospital, he added, referring inquiries to the police.
