Irish police today hope to contact the family of a homeless man from Southern England who was crushed to death when the commercial bin in which he was sleeping was emptied into a refuse collection lorry.

The 36-year-old man died on Monday morning after the bin was loaded into the rear of the lorry in Limerick city.

Detectives believe that he was emptied alive into the vehicle and killed by a compactor during a rubbish collection. His body was discovered at the end of the lorry's journey in a waste recycling plant.

Gardai have a name for the man, found on identification on his body, but they will not release it until next of kin have been located and informed.

Superintendent Frank O'Brien said: "The preliminary findings suggest that he died from crush injuries. We have a reasonable belief in his identity, but we're not disclosing it at the moment."

He is working with police in the UK, using fingerprints and dental records, to confirm the man's identity.

Investigating officers believe that the man had come to the city only at the weekend and had been sleeping rough in a large industrial wheeled bin for the night.

It is understood that he had been in Ireland for five years but was not known to homeless charities and agencies in Limerick.

"It appears he has spent some time in the south of Ireland, in Cork, and maybe at times in Dublin and other locations," Mr O'Brien said. "But there isn't any degree of certainty that he has been in Limerick for any length of time." It is thought that he arrived in Limerick last Thursday.

Gardai cordoned off the privately owned waste depot at Luddemore, near the village of Ballyneety, when workers found the man's remains on Monday.

State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy established that his death was caused by severe crush injuries incurred accidentally when the container was loaded on to a refuse collection lorry.

"It appears that it was a tragic accident," Mr O'Brien said, "but we are still pursuing this. We want to establish exactly what happened and the events leading up to his death."

Alice Leahy, director of Trust, the social and health service for the homeless, called for the urgent provision of more emergency sheltered accommodation. She said that a similar tragedy was narrowly averted a few weeks ago when a driver collecting a skip noticed that there was a person taking shelter in it.

“We have no excuse, at a time of great prosperity, for failing to address the accommodation needs of society’s true outsiders,” she said.

The Mayor of Limerick, Ger Fahy, extended his sympathy to the dead man's family.

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