POLICE say the circumstances surrounding the discovery of a man's body on a Kent beach are not suspicious.

A member of the public, on the sands at Margate with a metal detector, called police just after 9.20am on Tuesday when he saw the body under an archway, opposite the Dreamland site.

It is believed to be that of a 56-year-old man from the Margate area. He has not yet been formally identified.

The coroner's officer has been notified and a post mortem examination is due to take place later this week.

A police spokeswoman said: "It is too early to say how long the body has been there or how it came to be there."