British police probe death of 'spy' in London

British police were investigating on Wednesday the suspicious death of a man in London who newspaper reports suggest was a spy working for the foreign intelligence agency MI6.

British police were investigating on Wednesday the suspicious death of a man in London who newspaper reports suggest was a spy working for the foreign intelligence agency MI6.

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Detectives said the body of the man, believed to be in his 30s, was found on Monday afternoon in the top-floor flat of an upmarket building within walking distance of the MI6 headquarters on the River Thames.

According to The Sun newspaper, the man had worked for GCHQ, the government's communication monitoring centre, but was on secondment with MI6. The report said his body was found in a suitcase in the bathroom.

The victim's mobile phone and a number of SIM cards were carefully laid out elsewhere in the flat, according to a separate report in the Daily Mail.

"Detectives are investigating a suspicious death following the discovery of the body of a man in a central London flat," a police statement said, adding that a post-mortem was due to be carried out on Wednesday.

Officers had visited the flat in Westminster after reports that the occupant had not been seen for some time, the statement said.

Eileen Booth, 73, who lives opposite the building where the body was found, said detectives had been visiting neighbours as part of their investigation, adding: "They said this probably happened two weeks ago."