THE father of a BT engineer found in the car park of the company's Blackburn telephone exchange today said he did not know how his son had died.

Stephen Ainslie, 44, of Darwen, is believed to have either jumped or fallen from the roof of the building in Jubilee Street. Police are investigating but say there are no suspicious circumstances.

Stephen's father William Ainslie of Bonsall Street, Blackburn, was in Spain when he heard the news. He said: "We really don't know what has happened. We know he fell but don 't know anything more than that.

"We are still in the dark as to what happened, it is just such a shock. I have been in Spain for six weeks. I got the call at 11.30pm on Friday night and got a flight back on Saturday. We were a very close family."

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: "There are no suspicious circumstances but we are investigating to try to establish the chain of events which led to the fall."

A BT spokesman said they could not confirm if Mr Ainslie was supposed to have been on the roof at the time. He said: "We can confirm that the person was Stephen Ainslie, a BT employee based at the exchange.

"The circumstances are still under investigation by the police and BT. Our sympathies go out to Mr Ainslie's family at this very sad time."

The area was cordoned off after the incident at around 10.30am on Friday.