50-year-old found dead in central Tauranga

File photo / NZ Herald

Police have arrested a man and are today combing a section of central Tauranga after a 50-year-old man's body was found overnight.

This morning the body was covered and underneath a tarpaulin police tent in the driveway of a Salvation Army block of units.

Another tent was set up outside a letterbox of a neighbouring property.

Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner said a post-mortem examination would be done in Auckland to establish the cause of death.

Police are treating the death as suspicious and a 43-year-old Tauranga sickness beneficiary has been arrested and charged with assault.

He will appear in court today.

Mr Turner said police would continue with enquiries and a forensic scene examination today.

This morning road cones and police tape cordoned a section of the area off.

Traffic was blocked.

Neighbours walking down their driveways to put out their rubbish bins looked stunned when they saw the police activity on their doorstep.

Neighbour Ritchie Puhi said he initially thought it was a drug bust.

"That house over there, quite a lot of people go in there,'' he said.

Mr Puhi, who has lived on the street for two years, said a couple stayed at the house. They argued a lot, "and they were arguing yesterday''.

"I leave my curtains wide open till it gets dark and get to see all the traffic that moves around these parts.''

Two young women who lived across the road said they called 111 when they heard a heated argument spiralling out of control.

It is understood police were called to the scene in relation to an argument before the suspicious death was reported.

A couple of houses down, pensioner Dorothy Cave said she was "quite shocked'' because she had not heard anything overnight and was close with her neighbours.

"We were just saying how quiet it is here,'' she said.