Police are yet to identify the body of a man found dead inside a preschool car park in Melbourne's east on Saturday afternoon.
A passer-by made the grim discovery next to Upper Ferntree Gully Preschool in Rollings Road just after 3pm.
An Ambulance Victoria spokesman said paramedics attended but were unable to resuscitate the man.
The dead man is believed to have been aged in his 30s, and has not been identified.
Homicide squad detectives set up a crime scene inside the car park on Saturday afternoon.
The body was found about two metres from the fence of the preschool, which is near a busy shopping strip and Upper Ferntree Gully train station.
Police are yet to establish the cause of death but are treating it as suspicious.
An SES crew assisted police in searching for evidence on Saturday night.
Resident Jacqueline Catlin lives beside the carpark and said she heard some unusual activity before the body was found.
Police knocked on her door soon after.
"They said a man had been stabbed," she told Seven News.
The homicide squad is investigating after a man's body was found in a carpark at Upper Ferntree Gully this afternoon @3AW693
— Kiara Parker (@Kiara_Parker_) September 17, 2016
A witness told Nine News she heard a car braking loudly before the body was discovered.
"I did hear screeched brakes, which wasn't unusual for this area," the woman said.
"I'm shocked – nothing like this has ever happened around here before. Car accidents ... but not bodies lying around."
The Upper Ferntree Gully Country Fire Authority base sits across the road from where the body was found.
Captain Peter Smith said the community was "upset and disappointed" about the incident.
"We've never had anything like a body found there before," he said.
"Everyone keeps saying it never happens in our area, but it's a sign of the times, I suppose.
"From what I gather, from talking to CFA members and the public, they're really upset and disappointed as well.
"It's an older community that lives around that area."
One passerby was in a course at the TLC Birth and Beyond centre in Rollings Road.
"We came out and there were police everywhere, very sad" she said in a Facebook post.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.