POLICE are trying to identify a man's decomposed body discovered under the cliffs between Dover and St Margaret’s.

The crew of the reserve Dover Lifeboat, Beth Sell, was called out by the Coastguard on Tuesday after they received a call from a member of the public who had found the body, believed to be that of a man.

The body, which was found on the high water mark, is thought to have been in the water for about two weeks.

Lifeboat coxswain Duncan Mackay and his seven-man crew used an inflatable boat to get to the shore to recover the body, together with the member of the public and a police officer who had attended the scene, as their route back to St Margaret’s was being cut off by the tide.

An inquest cannot be opened until the identity of the man is established.