Getty grandson found dead

The grandson of billionaire Getty oil founder J. Paul Getty was found dead on Tuesday afternoon at his home in Los Angeles, the family said in a statement.

Andrew Getty's parents, Ann and Gordon, confirmed the 47-year-old's death and requested privacy for the family during "this extremely difficult time" and that further details would be released as they became available.

Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Commander Andrew Smith said it was very early in the investigation and witnesses were being questioned, but no one was in custody.

"At first glance, it does not appear to be a criminal type of act. But that could change," Smith said on Tuesday night.

The cause of Andrew Getty's death was not immediately clear.

Celebrity news website TMZ.com reported earlier that Getty, an heir to his grandfather's oil fortune, was found in a bathroom of his Hollywood Hills home about 2 p.m. under suspicious circumstances and that a former girlfriend was being detained as a potential witness or suspect.

The Los Angeles Times said Andrew Getty had sought a restraining order against a woman two weeks earlier.

The paper reported that according to an anonymous law enforcement official Getty appeared to have suffered blunt force trauma though the cause was unclear.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office could not be reached for comment by Reuters on Tuesday evening.

Police blocked off the street leading to the home with yellow crime-scene tape and more than a dozen news crews and photographers gathered at the scene.

Getty's grandfather, J. Paul Getty, merged several smaller oil companies into Getty Oil in the 1960s.

At one time one of America's richest men, he was also an avid art collector who established the trust that funds the J. Paul Getty Museum and several other institutions.