The man found dead in a bin near the back of the Holloway Waitrose on Saturday was a “nice, polite” person, his shocked neighbours said this week.

A 52-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder on Sunday.

Police were called to a disused property at the junction of Tollington Road and Annette Road at 4pm on Saturday after the man's body was discovered.

Detectives are yet to identify him or say and how he died, with an initial post-mortem "inconclusive".

Avis De Lacy told the Gazette her neighbour's body was discovered by a man living two doors down. "He would say hello if I saw him in the front yard," she said. "He was very friendly and polite so I'm surprised by what happened to him."

She said the building next door was a "mixed residence" and she would often hear arguments from it. "I'm not surprised something happened there but I didn't think he was going to die," she added.

Ms De Lacy had been away visiting her niece when the body was found. She returned the next day to find a pair of "very new blue" shoes straddling the garden fence between the two properties. She believes these were later removed by forensic officers.

Ms Levine said her neighbour's husband from three doors down had found the body. This couple didn't want to talk - but Dorset Nathaniel, 59, who lives on the other side of the alleged victim's address, said he'd spotted a "strange" bin yards from where the body was found at 11am on Saturday. "It was a different bin on the corner," he said. "It didn't look like an Islington bin - it was blue or grey. My immediate thought was: 'Somebody's going to fix up the place'." He said forensics had searched his house and garden.

He believes the victim was a dog owner. On one occasion a couple of years ago, he claims the man told him: "Someone's after me."

Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn told the Gazette: "I'm very concerned about the growing obvious street dealing as well as knife crime in the area. It underlines the need for an enhanced community police presence. Money was cut from the Met Police and the PCSO teams that worked so effectively were broken up or given far too wide an area to do.

"We need a restoration of community policing."

Did you know the victim? Contact Lucas at the Gazette newsdesk on 07785 616244 or email lucas.cumiskey@archant.co.uk