The victim was found dead by gardai at a two-storey house on Old Commons Road in the Blackrock area of the city. The alert was raised when a woman in her 40s, whose clothes were covered in blood, entered the Blue Cabs taxi dispatch in Blackrock in Cork at 5.55am yesterday morning and told them that a person had been violently killed.

The woman was accompanied by a child when she entered the taxi office. The toddler is believed to be the victim's daughter.

The woman was in a distressed state when gardai arrived at the taxi office and she is being cared for at Cork University Hospital.

A post mortem was due to be conducted by the state pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, who was expected to arrive in Cork last night.

The investigation is being headed by gardai at Mayfield in Cork. No arrests or charges had been brought in relation to the incident by yesterday afternoon but gardai were confident that they had ascertained most of the facts of how the woman died.