Camden New Journal - News: Canal Death

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Camden New Journal - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 25 October 2007

Moses Sarr’s covered body at Grand Union Canal

Police probe death after body is pulled from canal

MYSTERY surrounds the death of a man whose fully-clothed body was found floating in the Grand Union Canal in Camden Town.
The body of Moses Sarr, 42, of Adelaide Road, Chalk Farm, was pulled from the canal near Kentish Town Road early on Friday. A post mortem revealed the cause of death was drowning, but police are unable to say how Mr Sarr came to be in the canal.
Police forensic experts sealed off the area for much of the day. The canal towpath is closed until Saturday morning.
A coroner’s inquest into the death of Mr Sarr opens today (Thursday).
The stretch of towpath is overlooked by flats on either side of the canal, but neighbours say they saw little until officers arrived.
Steve Cziraki, a 16-year-old student whose bedroom overlooks the canal, said: “I woke up and glanced out of the window. I could see there was something in the canal – I looked again and realised it was the body of a man. It was horrible. The police had arrived and were dragging him out.”
He said he often heard people walking along the towpath at night – and some evenings the noise of people drinking and partying by the lock gates kept him awake. But he had heard nothing that evening. He added: “It was quiet last night – almost too quiet.”
Street drinkers have congregated at the lock gates in recent months. Neighbours say a man who fell in the canal last month had to be rescued by passing youths. Elsa Knott, whose back garden overlooks the spot where Mr Sarr’s body was found, said she often heard groups of revellers messing about on the towpath.
She added: “A few weeks ago there were two men wandering about there and one had fallen in. His mate had to jump in and save him. He was swearing and cursing because he’d lost his things in the water.”

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