Man, 29, killed in Gimli

RCMP are investigating the death of a man in Gimli, Man., during a weekend of festivities in the lakeside community's downtown.

Witnesses reported seeing a bloody, beaten man lying in the street near Centre Street and Third Avenue around 3 a.m. Sunday.

RCMP have confirmed only that a 29-year-old man was the victim of a homicide.Investigators did not release the name of the victim, and have not said if any suspects have been identified.

Gimli was host to the Islendingadagurinn, its 119th annual Icelandic festival, over the weekend.The festival draws thousands of visitors, adding to the hundreds of seasonal residents who spend summers in the town, located 85 kilometres north of the province's capital on Lake Winnipeg.

"The population here has pretty much doubled this weekend," said Chantal Jacques, who summers in Gimli. "Just the fact that it's kind of been a huge party scene, I think, it just gets people get out of control."

Store owner Stefan Tergesen says the festival is great for business but it also brings trouble to the town.

"From years of being here and seeing the history of it, it's mostly outsiders that have come and on some crazy, drunken foolishness or something, something happens," he said. "There's always one tragedy every year, if it's not a drowning or a car accident."

"We moved to a nice, quiet town, resort town, and to have something like this happen it's affected almost everyone in Gimli," said Randy Melnychuk, who recently moved to the town.

Melnychuk lamented that the crime scene was on one of the town's main streets, forcing visitors to manoeuvre around police tape.