The death of a teenage boy is being treated as suspicious after his body was found on a remote road in the Northern Territory.
The 19-year-old was found lying about on an unsealed section of Undoolya Road, east of Alice Springs, at about 12:30pm on Monday.
St John Ambulance attended to the scene but the man had already died.
Police believe he had only been left on the road for a short period of time before being discovered by a woman from the nearby Undoolya cattle station.
Assistant Commissioner for NT Police, Travis Wurst, described the death as a ‘tragedy’ after investigators were able to identify the man on Tuesday morning.
Investigations into the non-Indigenous man’s ties to the Alice Springs community are ongoing while police are in the process of contacting his family.
NT Police are treating the death of a 19-year-old man as suspicious after he was discovered lying on an unsealed road east of Alice Springs on Monday (stock image)
‘This will be very upsetting for the family given it has occurred on New Year’s Day and for a new year,’ Asst Commissioner Wurst told ABC Radio.
An autopsy is expected to be conducted on Tuesday which will ‘assist us in determining a cause of death’ according to the assistant commissioner.
Motorists have been urged to avoid Undoolya Road and surround areas after police blocked off access on Monday night.
Anyone with CCTV or dashcam footage of the area on Monday has been urged to contact police.
More to come.