A number of people have been arrested and questioned by the PSNI about a man's murder early yesterday in Banbridge, Co Down.
Police say a gang, perhaps involving four men and two women, beat the 29-year-old man to death at the back of a house at Leamount Park in the town.
They believe spades could have been used in the attack which happened some time before 5 a.m. yesterday. The man died at the scene. However it is not believed the attack was sectarian. Police appealing for information said one of the women may have had a Scottish accent.
An Ulster Unionist councillor, Ms Joan Baird, said people in the area were deeply shocked by the murder.
"This is unbelievable that people could go out and do this to other people," she said.
"Animals would not do this to each other and really these people have to be caught and punished for what they have done." Chief Inspector Steven Day confirmed late last night that four men and two women were in custody following the murder.
Both those being questioned and the victim came from Banbridge, the murdered man from close to where he was killed.
Chief Inspector Day branded the killing "an horrific murder" and said the victim had suffered multiple injuries.
"We are satisfied that this was not a sectarian incident or terrorist related," he said. Detectives still needed help in bringing those responsible to justice, he added. Just because people had been arrested the public should not assume police had all the information they needed.
He appealed to anybody living in the area of the murder to "search their property, their gardens and bins etc, for items that do not belong there - spades, shovels, clothes and footwear".
Meanwhile, a man was arrested in west Belfast following a hammer attack which left another man critically ill.
He was detained after the attack at a house in Broadway Parade at around 4 a.m.
In Co Tyrone, five police officers were hurt in a protracted stone-throwing attack. Police had been called to a disturbance in the centre of Castlederg at about 2.30 a.m. yesterday. But the disturbance worsened with up to 50 people involved in attacking officers with stones and bottles.