POLICE were initially called to a street where three people were found dead over concerns for the safety of the man they have arrested.

A 32-year-old man from Colchester has been arrested on suspicion of murder after two men were found dead inside a property in Wellesley Road, Colchester, while another was discovered nearby inside a car.

Detectives have launched a murder investigation and are hunting for the weapon used.

They believe all four people involved were known to each other but do not think the incident is drug or gang related.

Senior investigating offer Det Chief Insp Stephen Jennings said: "We were called late on Saturday evening for a concern for welfare that led us on to an address in Wellesley Road in Colchester just after midnight where we find three men that were found deceased, two inside the flat and the third in a car just outside.

"My message to the local community in Colchester is at the moment we have someone in custody, although we are keeping an open mind we don't believe we are looking for anyone else at the moment.

"We think that suspect was known to the victims, we are going to be around Wellesley Road for sometime, maybe for the next couple of days and as far as we know this is an isolated incident, there's no suggestion it is involved drugs or controlled substances.

"We think its certainly isolated and my reassurance to the public is we are increasing our patrols in the area and it is still a very safe place to live.

"We are trying to unpick exactly what has happened and who may be involved, as I said we are not looking for anyone particularly else at this time.

“Anyone in and around the Wellesley Road area particularly from around 6pm we would like to know whether you were there, whether you saw or heard anything at all and please contact us either via Crimestoppers or locally through the police.

"The initial call to police was concern for welfare for the person we have in custody, our response a couple of hours after that led us on to Wellesley Road where we found three men deceased.

"The man was actually arrested at hospital, he did have some injuries himself. He was taken by ambulance to the local hospital, he was arrested there."

Mr Jenning said post-mortems would take place in the next few days to determine the men's cause of death.

He added: "We believe some form of weapon, probably a sharp pointed weapon was used, but of course that is yet to be confirmed forensically.

"We have a number of scenes at the moment, we are going through a forensic assessment and we will be conducting more in depth searches. At this moment we are unsure, if we have recovered that weapon.

"My appeal to the public is if we do find any weapons around the Wellesley Road area that might be blood stained etc then please call us straight away on 101 or on Crimestoppers."