BREAKING NEWS:
by Cara Sulieman, Paul Thornton and Shaun Milne
POLICE were tonight (tues) investigating the death of a woman after her body was discovered in “unexplained” circumstances at her Edinburgh home.
The woman was thought to have been found in a bath at an address in Nicolson Street on the south side of the city.
It was believed she lived at the address with her husband and two children.
Identity
Locals said the woman was called Randa, aged in her late 20s, from Edinburgh’s community of Sudanese.
Lothian and Borders Police last night refused to confirm her identity.
But one man said: “All I know is she is dead.”
Another Sudanese man added: “Yes, Randa is the woman they found.”
Lothian and Borders Police did not volunteer any statement regarding the incident during the day but confirmed later when asked that the death was “unexplained”.
Forensic teams dressed in white paper coveralls attended the scene at around 1pm.
It was understood they are now looking for her husband Yahya Babiker.
Detectives arriving at the address at number 10 Nicolson Street yesterday were said by sources to have been greeted by a scene of “complete chaos”.
Quizzed
One said the woman – believed to be aged in her 30s to 40s – had been found lying fully submerged under water on her left hand side.
Meanwhile officers conducting door to door inquiries asked neighbours if they had heard anything unusual in the tenement at around 2am – suggesting she may have been lying dead for some considerable time before being found.
It was also suggested by neighbours last night that the dead woman’s husband had not been seen since the incident.
Police would not comment on the claim.
Several police vehicles were parked nearby for several hours as officers quizzed neighbours and passers-by for any information.
Policeman
A lone policeman stood guard at the entrance of the stone build tenement block which was scarred with graffiti at its entrance.
Last night a spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said they did not know how the woman had died or if it was suspicious.
They added: “Inquiries are at a very early stage and a full forensic investigation will now be carried out to determine the cause of death which is being treated as unexplained at this time.”
The building was still cordoned off last night – several hours after officers first arrived to be confronted by the grisly scene.
Neighbours said they were “shocked” by the discovery.
Burka
One said: “I hardly ever saw the woman herself and when I did she was almost always wearing a Burka.
“I overhead the police say that he had dropped his two children off yesterday at a relatives house.
“Apparently he told the kids that the mum was unwell and he’s not been seen since.
“He normally always said hello, but yesterday he just blanked us, which was unusual.”
Next door neighbour Jo Alexander, 23, said police called at her house earlier in the day before coming back to break the news.
She said: “Police came to the building and I didn’t think anything of it. But a couple of hours later my doorbell went and police officers asked me if I had heard anything about 2am.
“I had been asleep, so couldn’t help, and they told me a woman had been found dead in her bath.
Crying
“I know the family to say hello to, it was a husband and wife and they had two kids, aged about four to six.
“I hardly ever saw her, I don’t know why.
“But I always saw him and said hello. He always said hello back.
“When I first realised that she was dead I was shocked and shaking.
“I started crying.”
Saleh Safi, 54, who runs Jordan Valley Wholefoods directly below the flats said: “I came to work just after 3pm and there were police everywhere.
“I assumed there was something wrong obviously and about 3.30pm I saw one police officer in white forensic suit
CCTV
“I heard that they found an Asian woman in a bath, dead.
“I’m not quite sure or how.”
Dhaval Vijan, 21, who works in Subway sandwich bar below the tenement said: “The police turned up about Noon and there was quite a lot of them.
“Just after 2pm two officers came in and asked if they could look at our CCTV cameras.
“We only have one and it looks out onto the street, but they must not have found anything because they just left and didn’t take the tapes with them.
“They didn’t say what was going on but when I found out that a body had been found I was shocked that something like this could happen on such a busy street.”
There was no further statement from police who were still carrying out investigations at the scene last night.
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