NORTH SYDNEY, N.S. -- A man has been found dead after an assault in North Sydney early Thursday morning.     

While no one has been arrested, police say there's no public threat.

The normally quiet side street was teeming police activity Thursday as residents who live in the neighbourhood were left wondering what was happening.

"It's scary around here," said area resident Darren MacDonald. "It's scary. It's been coming for a long time."

Police say they were called to a home on Brook Street around in the morning for an assault.

When they arrived paramedics were attending to a 60-year-old man who was pronounced dead a short time later.

Police are not saying how the man died, but they are treating his death as suspicious. But say there's no risk to the public.

"We believed it's an isolated incident," said Insp. Stephen MacKinnon of the Cape Breton Regional Police."We're only in the preliminary stages of our investigation, but at this time we don't believe there's any concerns to the public."

Those are reassuring words for some residents who say they've seen an increase in police activity on the north side in the last few days.

"Well, I hope it's over," MacDonald said. "It's done and finished. It's scary. It's hard to sleep at night."

Cape Breton Regional Police say several of their units are investigating, including major crime and canine units, but so far they say no arrests have been made.

"We're only into the first period of the investigative stage," MacKinnon said. "It only happened at 4 a.m. this morning, so officers are still out in the field taking statements, interviewing people, obtaining video, so it's very early in the investigation."

Cape Breton Regional Police are asking witnesses or anyone with information about the incident to contact them at 902-563-5151.