POLICE have said that they now believe a man found dead in a blazing flat in Birkenhead on Friday may have been dead before the fire started.

They expect to name the 59-year-old man later this week using his dental records.

He was too badly burnt to allow any other method of identification.

The man was found by firefighters on Friday lunchtime in the kitchen of his Trent Street home.

A fire brigade spokesman said the circumstances of the fire were unknown.

Firefighters from Birkenhead were called to the second-floor flat where they found the kitchen on fire and a "severely burnt" body underneath a cooker.

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