Four arrested over body-in-canal murder investigation

Gardaí in Dublin have arrested four people in connection with the murder of a man whose dismembered body was found in the city's Royal Canal earlier this year.

They are being questioned about the murder of a 38-year-old Somalian man, Farah Swaleh Noor, whose remains were found near the bridge over the canal in Ballybough in March.

He had been repeatedly stabbed in the body and decapitated and his head has never been recovered.

Gardaí only released the victim's identity today and said he had been living in Ireland since 1996.

They arrested a 49-year old woman from Phibsboro and Tallaght at 10.15am in Summerhill in North Dublin.

A 22-year-old Tallaght woman was arrested in Tallaght at 10.40am and a 30-year-old Tallaght woman was arrested at the same time.

A 52-year-old man from Tallaght was arrested at 10.55am in Terenure.

Two of the women are being detained in Mountjoy Garda Station and the remaining woman and the man are being held at Store Street Garda station.

They can be held for up to 12 hours under section four of the Criminal Justice Act.

The headless corpse of Farah Swaleh Noor was discovered on March 30 by a man who was walking along the Royal Canal, near Ballybough Road. The torso was contained in a black plastic bag and the arms and legs were found nearby.

Despite extensive searches by the Garda water unit, the man’s head was not located.

Gardaí carried out inquiries in immigrant communities and replicas of the Irish soccer jersey, socks and underpants the man had been wearing were put on display in a bid to establish his identity.

Detectives believed the body had been in the water for up to two weeks.

They also believed that those responsible for the murder wanted the body to be found because they made no attempt to conceal it.