Police have arrested three men after a 33-year-old man was found stabbed to death in an alley in west Belfast.
The body of Mr Dominic McManus, from Quadrant Place, was discovered in an entry at Devonshire Close off the Grosvenor Road at about 2 a.m. yesterday.
He had been stabbed a number of times.
An RUC spokesman said that as a result of follow-up inquiries, police stopped a car on the Antrim Road in north Belfast at about 9.30 a.m. and arrested three men in connection with the killing.
Detectives and forensic experts examined a house in Devonshire Place, near where the body was found, in an attempt to establish where the killing had taken place.
An RUC spokesman said there had been reports of a disturbance at a party in the house at about 1.30 a.m. and appealed for witnesses.
Local sources said the killing was not believed to be sectarian or linked to paramilitary organisations but arose from a feud between rival gangs in the area.
They said they believed a brother of the deceased had previously had his legs broken in a dispute with another gang, and some of those responsible had been at the same party as Mr McManus.
The stabbing was the ninth such death since before Christmas.