A POLICE investigation is under way after body parts of a large man were found on a stretch of beach around Aldeburgh.A Suffolk police spokeswoman said last nightthat an initial examination showed the body parts belonged to a large adult male who appears to have been in the water for at least three months.

A POLICE investigation is under way after body parts of a large man were found on a stretch of beach around Aldeburgh.

A Suffolk police spokeswoman said last nightthat an initial examination showed the body parts belonged to a large adult male who appears to have been in the water for at least three months.

A Home Office pathologist examined part of the right leg that was found by a fisherman on the beach near Slaughden Keys at about 7.30am yesterday.

After he alerted the police to his gruesome discovery, a team of officers carried out a search of the coastline and discovered a further body part - the lower torso with the left leg attached – two and half miles south of Slaughden at about 12.30pm.

A small piece of spine was also found nearby, which made up the lower half of the body.

The body parts were taken to the James Paget Hospital, Gorleston, for a post mortem examination and the pathologist later confirmed that they all belonged to the same man, who was likely to be aged over 40 and over 6ft tall.

The Suffolk police spokeswoman said: "There were no signs of clothing but the level of decomposition is such that it would not be unusual for the tide to cause the body to break up.

"There is nothing at this stage to indicate any suspicious circumstances."

She said the police and coastguards had spent much of yesterday searching the beach and will be out again this morning.

Acting Det Insp Kevin Hayward is heading the inquiry and officers will also be liasing with other police forces and coastguards to check the missing persons' records.

Samples have been taken for potential DNA analysis to assist with the identification of the man and the coroner has been informed.

The beach where the first discovery was made is a favourite spot for fishermen. There was bad weather over the weekend and townspeople speculated that this may have brought the body parts to shore.

Members of Aldeburgh volunteer coastguard station team joined police as they scoured the coastline yesterday, and used their four-wheel drive vehicle to help in the search.

It was while they were heading up the National Trust land midway between Orford and Aldeburgh that deputy coastguard station officer Shaun Bryenton said he spotted the torso in the sea.

He had just been dropped off to search an area when he made the discovery, he said.

"A little while after I started searching I saw something in the surf. I just called the mobile," he said.

Charlie Walker, station officer, said they had heard about the search and joined at around 10.30am.

"We provided the usual assistance we can. We have a four wheel drive vehicle that they don't have," he explained.

There could have been any number of reasons for them arriving at the shore yesterday, he said.

"There will be loads of pet theories being expounded by loads of people. You can't say anything really. The tides in the sea are weird and peculiar," he said.

"We had gales over the weekend and that would affect how quickly, where it came from and how it came ashore."

He believed the parts may have come from anywhere in the southern North Sea from Cromer across to the Dutch and German coast.

Aldeburgh lifeboat coxswain and town councillor Lee Firman said townspeople would be shocked by the discovery.

"It's a shock and I am sure many people will be shocked by it and also intrigued about where it's come from," he said.

"It's not every day that body parts wash up on the beach. Who knows where it's come from. We have had bad weather for the past six or seven days."

Aldeburgh town mayor Felicity Bromage said it was not the first time dead bodies had been found along the beach, and some time ago she had been close to happening upon one while she was out walking.

"It does sound pretty gruesome," she said. "I'm just glad I was not the one who found it."

Such incidents were not totally unheard of when you lived along the coast, she said.

"It would be certainly not the first time bodies have been found on the beach here. I always think it's very poignant and sad for people who have lost someone at sea."