A dolphin has been found washed up on a beach.

The creature - believed to be a common dolphin - was found lying dead on the shingle at Seasalter near Whitstable.

Resident David Holt says he came across the rare sight while out walking this afternoon.

"I understand the dolphin was washed up yesterday," he said. "It’s a male, common dolphin, two metres long."

Common dolphins are protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

They are an offshore species, but are known to often come close to shore to feed - their diet consisting mainly of fish and squid.

The Kent Wildlife Trust says: "They are said to be highly social and normally found in groups, travelling at speed and frequently leaping from the water."

It describes the species as "a slender dolphin, dark grey above and whiter below" with "a distinctive hourglass pattern on their sides, including an obvious yellow-cream area starting behind the long, narrow beak".

The dolphin was found just weeks after a porpoise was found dead in Margate.

The coastguard was called to reports of the dead creature which had been discovered on the beach.

Just days later police started an investigation after a man reportedly used a meat cleaver to cut up the porpoise.

The team was sent to an area behind the Winter Gardens where a harbour porpoise had in fact been washed up.

Canterbury City Council has been informed about the discovery.

A spokesman said: "We have had a number of reports about the death of a common dolphin which is an adult, around 2.5m in length and was found on the shore in Seasalter.

"We are liaising with the government-funded UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme in case they would like to investigate why this dolphin died.

"If not, our contractor is ready to take it away."

Read more: All the latest news from Whitstable