The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
body found in river
Police say grim discovery on Embankment is ‘not suspicious’
A BODY was discovered floating in the river Nene in Peterborough city centre yesterday.
The body was found by the Embankment close to the Grain Barge floating restaurant near Town Bridge at 11.39am.
The body, believed to be of a man, has yet to be identified but police are not treating the death as suspicious.
Officers were called to the scene after staff from the Grain Barge spotted the body floating in the water.
Police at the scene said it was too early to say how long the body had been in the water for.
A staff member from the Grain Barge restaurant, who asked not to be named, told the Evening Telegraph that a friend of the venue’s owners had made the grim discovery.
He said: “The friend was visiting staff at the restaurant, which was not open at the time.
“He looked out of the window of the boat and spotted what he thought looked like a table cloth floating on the surface of the water.
“But as the object drifted closer, he noticed it was in fact a pair of trousers and there were legs inside.
“As soon as we realised that this was somebody’s body we called the police and they were here very quickly.
“I didn’t see the body being removed but the police were here for some time.
“We were able to open the restaurant as normal later in the afternoon.”
A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Police added: “We were called to reports of a body in the River Nene near the Embankment at 11.39am.
“Officers attended the scene and a body was discovered which was then removed from the water.
“The death is not being treated as suspicious and a report is being passed to the Peterborough coroner.”
After arriving at the scene, officers cordoned off the area and stayed there until the body had been removed.
Town Bridge remained open to traffic and a number of pass- ing pedestrians and motorists stopped to see what was going on.
This is the latest tragedy involving the River Nene in the city over the last 12 months.
Back in December last year the body of pensioner Barry Monk was found in the Fengate section of the river.
The police and fire service had been searching for the 65-year-old, of Skaters Way in Werrington, for just over 24 hours.
In March last year the body of 16-year-old Theo Kawala was pulled from the river close to town bridge.
The teenager had been missing for around one month after being dropped off by his father in the city for a night out.
His body was spotted by a member of the public near the Charters Bar pub boat in Peterborough.