MURDER squad detectives were today following up possible new leads in the hunt for the killer of a man stabbed through the heart in Southampton.

Officers working on the murder hunt spoke to around 1,000 people across the Newtown and Nicholstown area yesterday in an eight-hour operation designed to track down more witnesses.

Around 30 CID and uniform officers working on the inquiry, codenamed Operation Georgian, took part in the mammoth task between midday and 8pm.

Six hundred motorists and another 400 pedestrians were stopped in the operation, which came exactly a week after 23-year-old Devon Adamson was stabbed in the chest in broad daylight.Inquiries centred on Exmoor Road, where the fatal attack happened during a dispute between a group of young black men, and the Queensland Tavern pub in Clovelly Road.

Mr Adamson is known to have staggered bleeding and shoeless through the city streets to the nearby Royal South Hants Hospital, where he collapsed and subsequently died.

His trainers were found in the street near the Queensland Tavern and have been seized by detectives.

Today police released more details of the distinctive shoes in the hope of jogging people's memories.

They were silver and black Nike Max Air trainers with a diagonal stripe down the sides along with an orange Nike tick.

Det Chief Insp Bob Duncan, leading the murder hunt, said: "We re-visited the scene a week on in the hope of tracing anyone who may have been in the area last week and may have seen something but not realised the significance of it.

"In particular, we were aiming to track down people who may have been in the pub last week.

"We have had a very good response with some interesting pieces of information which we now need to work through."

Mr Adamson, who had been living in the Newtown and Nicholstown area in the weeks before his murder, died from a single stab wound to the chest. Attempts by hospital staff to revive him were in vain.

Since then detectives have executed search warrants at four homes across the Southampton area, with some of the raids involving armed police.

Noone has been arrested in connection with the stabbing and police are still searching for the knife or other bladed weapon which was plunged into Mr Adamson's chest.

l Information to the Operation Georgian team on 0845 045 4545, or the free and anonymous Crimestoppers line on 0800 555 111.