POLICE are hunting for the murder weapon used to kill Dunfermline man Duncan Banks at his Abbeyview home.

The 39-year-old's body was found in the living room of his Skye Road flat at 5pm on Monday, having sustained multiple head injuries inflicted by an unidentified weapon.

DCI Keith Hardie today confirmed that officers had been searching the area to find out what was used.

“Because of the nature of the injury it's very difficult to say what type of weapon we're looking for so it's a matter of searching the local vicinity to look for anything that may be connected to the crime,” he said.

“Unless there's an obvious weapon in the house it's something we'd do as a matter of routine. We'd cordon off and look at the area close by and carry out a search in that proximity, not necessarily knowing exactly what we're looking for but it's part of the process we adopt in such a serious incident.”

He added that Mr Banks had “multiple head injuries which couldn't have been inflicted without a weapon of some sort”.

“There were numerous injuries to the head,” he said. “We need to establish from the injuries what likely weapon would have been used in the circumstances.”

With the murder investigation still at an early stage, DCI Hardie said that they had to keep an open mind with regard to the motivation of the attack.

“From what we've established so fair he's a fairly quiet, unassuming individual and certainly speaking to his family, he was somebody who wouldn't harm a fly and pretty much kept himself to himself,” he said. “We've got nothing whatsoever to suggest he had enemies at the moment but obviously somebody was intent on doing him harm.

“I don't think it's random but it's far too early to say until we know exactly who is responsible and bring them to justice, it's difficult to understand the motivation for the attack.”

He added that it was “difficult to say” whether the Mr Banks knew his killer and said: “There is a possibility that it was more than one person. We don't know what went on inside the flat so we're relying on the community to give us an idea, for example anyone who has seen anything suspicious around the area in the particular time we're interested in. Whether it's one, two or more than two involved, we'd be really keen to speak to them.”