A WOMAN who was found dead in the sea four miles off the Suffolk coast is thought to be from the Ipswich area.

Richard Cornwell

A WOMAN who was found dead in the sea four miles off the Suffolk coast is thought to be from the Ipswich area.

The body was found yesterday after crew from a pilot ship spotted the woman and reported the sighting to Thames Coastguard.

Lifeboat crews recovered the woman, who was aged in her forties and of Filipino appearance, and she was taken to Harwich Quay before being handed over to officials from the coroner's office.

Police said today that the woman could be from the Ipswich area although this has not been confirmed.

Enquiries will continue today in a bid to formally identify her and a post mortem examination is due to be carried out.

People watched from Felixstowe seafront as a lifeboat crew carried out the gruesome task of recovering the fully-clothed body.

The drama unfolded after men on board an anchored pilot ship had earlier spotted the body floating about four miles off the coast.

People on Felixstowe seafront could see the incident but said they had no idea what was going on.

One man working on the seafront said: “I saw the lifeboat go out and then stop. There didn't appear to be anything happening and even with binoculars it was hard to see what they were doing out there.

“Usually, you can guess because they go to a boat or a helicopter appears. It must be an awful thing to have to deal with.”

The body was reported to Thames Coastguard at Walton-on-the-Naze at 8.15am yesterday by the pilot crew at the Cork Anchorage, a holding area for boats waiting to go into the harbour or to hook up with larger vessels needing pilot ships for their approach to shore.

It is just south of the separation zones close to the main deep channel used by ferries going in and out of Harwich and Felixstowe.

Police said they believed the body had only been in the water a few hours before it was found and recovered.

A police spokesman said inquiries were underway to try and identify the body and establish how the woman ended up in the sea.

The death is currently being treated as “unexplained”.

A post mortem examination is due to be carried out and an inquest opened.