The police last night said they were treating the death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer as “suspicious”, suggesting that their probe into the matter had changed focus and that they doubted that he had died of natural causes.

“Having met with the pathologist, other medical personnel and the investigators, there is now sufficient information to continue a full investigation of the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Woolmer, which we are now treating as suspicious,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields told reporters at a hastily called news conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston shortly after 9:30.

Asked whether he was suggesting that Woolmer was murdered, Shields said ‘no’.

He said that the police had informed the Woolmer family of the latest development and are in close contact with the Pakistan team management, the ICC and CWC.

Earlier in the day, Dr Ere Seshiah, the pathologist employed to the Jamaican Government who conducted yesterday’s autopsy, removed fluid and tissue samples from Woolmer’s body for further tests to be done at Jamaica’s National Government Laboratory and the Forensic Laboratory to find the cause of the coach’s death.

Woolmer, who was found unconscious in his hotel room in Kingston on Sunday, was later pronounced dead at the University Hospital of the West Indies.

There was early speculation that he had died of a stroke or heart attack.

His death came less than a day after his team suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of minnows Ireland and subsequent elimination from the Cricket World Cup, being played for the first time in the Caribbean.

Yesterday afternoon, Pakistan team media manager, Pervez Mir, told a press conference at the Pegasus Hotel that the police met with the Pakistani management, captain (Inzamam-ul-Haq) and vice-captain (Younis Khan) and informed them of the autopsy results.

The police have, in the meantime, requested that the additional tests on Woolmer be fast-tracked in time for the scheduled departure of the Pakistan team on Saturday afternoon.

While the police did not rule out foul play, they denied that the Pakistanis were being heavily interrogated by local detectives and were being isolated.

“We have been flooded with calls and we wish to make it known that there is no truth to it,” communications director for the Jamaica Constabulary Force, Karl Angell, told reporters yesterday.

Several persons close to the coach have been interrogated by homicide detectives, but according to Deputy Commissioner Shields, none were seen as serious suspects.

“We have to treat all sudden deaths like this and we will continue with our investigations,” Shields told reporters.

The autopsy took about three hours, after which Woolmer’s body was transported off the Kingston Public Hospital compound in a Roman’s Funeral Home hearse.