The body of a young man was found in an elegant Vienna square with a rake embedded in his head, Austrian police said on Saturday.

Cleaners on their way to work at Vienna's famous Albertina Museum made the gruesome discovery at a building site on the adjacent square of the same name, a police statement said.

A trail of blood indicated that the man had been involved in a fight on the square after midnight on Friday and was dragged to the construction area, where he was repeatedly struck in the head with a rake from the site, it said.

Police were examining film from a nearby surveillance camera for any sign of the assailant or assailants.

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