POLICE investigating the murder of a man found dead in a Selby canal today revealed they were still following leads in York.

Officers investigating the death of Cai Guan Chen said they were chasing up leads in York as well as others outside the city.

They were unable to provide further details about the leads, but did say the property in Heslington Lane that they had been searching was still under their possession.

We reported on Friday how three police forensic officers were scouring the empty, semi-detached house.

A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman told The Press that it could be weeks before the results of the detailed forensic examination were known.

The 38-year-old Chinese national had been living illegally in Britain since 2001 under the fake name Bing Lin.

He was only identified last Tuesday – nearly six weeks after his body was discovered by an off-duty policeman fishing in Selby Canal between Burn and Brayton, near the A19.

As reported last week in The Press, residents living near the Heslington Lane area have said that at least three or four Chinese people had rented the property for several years, before leaving in early March.

It is believed the house had been under surveillance since the discovery of the victim.

North Yorkshire Police have said that the body may have been in the canal for two or three weeks before it was discovered.

It is thought that Chen lived in numerous locations around the UK and that his last-known address was in London.