THE body of a woman has been found on a Suffolk beach.The grim discovery was made at around 8.35am yesterday at Aldeburgh as two fishermen were returning to shore.
By Sarah Chambers
THE body of a woman has been found on a Suffolk beach.
The grim discovery was made at around 8.35am yesterday at Aldeburgh as two fishermen were returning to shore.
A council worker spotted the body, which was partially in the sea, on the beach near Fort Green car park at the southern end of town.
The fishermen used a mobile phone to alert the Aldeburgh lifeboat station, and two crew members wearing waterproof gear arrived and brought the body to shore.
Police and coastguards were quickly on the scene, and the area was cordoned off while an initial examination was carried out.
The body, thought to be that of a local woman, was taken to Ipswich Hospital for a post mortem examination.
Until the results of the post mortem are known, the police are treating the death as unexplained, but said there was nothing to indicate any suspicious circumstances at this stage.
Aldeburgh lifeboat coxswain Lee Firman said the body was just in the breakers right on the shoreline. A fisherman called them to the scene, while the police were being alerted, he said.
“He rang up the lifeboat station while someone on the beach called the police,” he said.
Aldeburgh fishermen Allan Wood and Stephen Ashford told how they arrived on the scene as they travelled north in their boat along the coastline, heading towards their fishermen's huts.
Mr Ashford said it was “a shock”.
“We didn't know what it was for sure until we got nearer and then we realised it was a dead body,” he said.
Mr Wood said: “We just came in closer, and as soon as we got in closer I could see that was a woman lying there.”
He added: “We thought it might have been a dummy at first, but you could see the way the waves were moving it about it was not.”
Mr Wood, who came across a washed-up body once before back in the early 1980s, immediately telephoned the lifeboat station on his mobile phone.
Police said no further details would be released until the next-of-kin had been informed, and formal identification had taken place.
The coroner has been informed, and an inquest will be held in due course.
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