The unbearable stench coming from the body of a dead man forced a group of angry residents in Olympic Gardens, St Andrew to put it in a coffin and use it to mount a small roadblock along Olympic Way yesterday.

THE STAR learnt that the body was left in the roadway after 2 p.m. by residents who said they could no longer bear the smell of the body which was discovered by authorities but left for almost 24 hours.

The Olympic Gardens police said the dead man was identified as 48-year-old Noel Crawford of a Hill Avenue address in the community.

According to their reports, Crawford's body was found about 4 p.m. in his home on Monday.

The police were alerted and realised that the body was in an advanced state of decomposition. As such, the body was left overnight for a government pathologist to conduct an on-the-spot post-mortem.

The police say the pathologist was not on time and residents decided to take matters into their own hands.

"Wi couldn't wait no longer. It did get too stink and dat nuh healthy," Sheldon Lewis, a resident of Hill Avenue, said.

Although small, the coffin did cause some amount of traffic build up along the road and personnel from Madden's funeral home were called in to remove the body.

The scheduled post-mortem was conducted afterwards but the cause of death is still undetermined.