POLICE officers involved in a murder hunt were alerted after a large bag was found near the swing bridge in Selby.

Officers are searching for clues into the murder of a south east Asian man whose body was pulled from the canal at Burn Bridge after a savage beating.

Yesterday, officers were at Selby’s swing bridge after a member of the public found a holdall near the water and thought it may be connected to the crime.

Officers went to the scene but do not believe the bag was significant. A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police thanked the member of the public for being so vigilant and encouraged anyone else who may have information about the man’s death to come forward.

The man’s body was recovered from the canal at Burn Bridge on March 20.

He is believed to have been aged between his late teens and early 30s, was 5ft 7ins tall and weighed ten stone.

Police have still not identified him. He had been so severely beaten that police have had to rely on image generating software to construct a picture of what they think he looked like.