A MAN who fell three storeys to his death at the Axa Centre in Stoke Gifford has been named.

Staff were told of his identity in an email from Axa UK's deputy chief executive, Paul Evans, when they returned to work yesterday morning.

The memo said that Bob West, who was 52 and married, had worked at Axa Sun Life since he was 18.

He worked in Capita's pensions servicing department, having transferred to the outsourcing company from Axa in June last year when it took over 3.2 million Axa life assurance and pension policies.

Capita spokeswoman Caroline Mooney said: "We're deeply shocked and saddened by Bob's death. Bob had only worked with Capita since the start of our contract with AXA last year, but his long service with AXA SunLife meant that he was well known and his wealth of experience was valued by colleagues old and new."

Axa spokesman Peter Webb said: "Our deepest sympathies go out to Mr West's family at this sad time. Mr West worked for Axa Sun Life for many years and he will be sadly missed by the many colleagues and friends he made during that time."

Most of the 3,000 Axa and Capita staff at the centre returned to work yesterday morning but some stayed at home, after Mr West's death, which happened at 1.30pm on Thursday.

A number of them had witnessed Mr West's fall from the top floor of the Axa centre to the ground level of the building's atrium, and bosses were quick to block off the balconies to shield staff from the scene.

One member of staff said the mood at the centre yesterday was sombre.

She said: "It's quite hard to think that business is carrying on as normal after something like that happened to somebody."

Other colleagues said Mr West had only returned to work this week after being off work for the past two months with stress.

In March Capita announced it was cutting 300 staff from its 900-strong workforce at the Stoke Gifford site, with 50 to 100 redundancies.

It is not clear if Mr West was expected to be affected by the job losses.

Yesterday colleagues were invited to lay flowers at the scene of Mr West's death, and these will be moved to a memorial area near a lake in the centre's grounds over the weekend.

Last night Mr West's colleagues left messages of sympathy on the Evening Post's website.

One former co-worker said: "I worked with him for many years in Axa and Capita, and he was a great bloke.

"I hope you are at peace now."

Police confirmed they are not treating Mr West's death as suspicious, and have handed the investigation over to the coroner. A post-mortem examination will be carried out next week, after which an inquest will formally open.