A man's body was discovered in the Swale after a car was found abandoned on the Sheppey Crossing in the early hours of Monday.

Coastguards working with the Sheerness Lifeboat retrieved the body from mud beneath the bridge at dawn.

Police are not treating the death as suspicious.

Officers were called to a report of an abandoned car on the Sheppey-bound carriageway of the bridge at 2.55am.

The carriageway was closed for around three hours and traffic diverted across the old Kingsferry lift-bridge as police officers recovered the car.

The RNLI received a call at 3.41am and launched the all-weather George and Ivy Swanson.

It was at the scene at 4.20am and spent an hour searching the water.

Lifeboat spokesman Vic Booth said: "Conditions were rough with a strong north-easterly wind."

The lifeguard crew found the body and a team of two coastguards retrieved it using a special basket-stretcher and a motorised winch to pull it ashore on the mainland side of The Swale.

Spokesman Tim Judge said: "It was horrendous conditions with horizontal driving rain."

The Sheppey Crossing was reopened around 8am.

A police spokesman said yesterday: "The next of kin have been informed."

The identity of the man has not been released. A post-mortem examination is to be held and an inquest will follow.