MYSTERY surrounds the death of a man whose body was pulled from a river by police.

Officers dragged the body of a white man from the River Foss, near the village of Towthorpe, on the outskirts of York, at about 12.30pm yesterday after a member of the public spotted it and alerted them.

Detectives investigating the death are believed to be treating it as suspicious. The man has not yet been identified.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "The area has been cordoned off to allow an investigation to be conducted into who the man is and how he died."

Forensics officers in white suits and uniformed police officers wearing blue plastic gloves carried out a detailed search of the area.

More than 20 officers were at the scene.

Some carried out a fingertip search of the Ebor Way footpath beside the bank of the river and others set up measuring equipment nearby.

The area around the scene was sealed off with police incident tape and part of Towthorpe Road remained closed for about nine hours.

The scene is only a few hundred yards from the detached house in Strensall Road, Towthorpe, where tragic pensioners James and Joan Britton were brutally killed by quadruple murderer Mark Hobson in 2004.

One witness said: "There were so many police there I don't think it was just some drunk who had fallen into the river. They must think it's something more serious.

"They had all kinds of equipment with them, but they made it clear they didn't want anyone loitering about nearby.

"It's a bit of a shock, to be honest. I walk my dog along there and I'm really glad it wasn't me who found him."

A local farmer, who owns the land next to where the body was found, said the police had not yet been to speak to her.

She said: "All I know is that they've found a body, but I have no idea who it is or what the circumstance are.

"It's very quiet where we are, so we usually hear things, but we certainly didn't hear anything last night.

"We had to get past the police to go and collect my son from school and we passed them again coming back.

"They shut the road off from the Strensall Road end to the Haxby Road end, but we live right in the middle, so we had to come out to pick my boy up. We just moved the cones and then moved them back again."

Strensall ward councillor Ian Cuthbertson said an area remained taped off by police last night where the road through Towthorpe crosses over the River Foss.

He said: "I understand a body has been found there.

"It is an isolated area and you wouldn't be stopping there unless you were walking down the river bank. "People would normally just travel straight through over the road."

Councillor Madeline Kirk said: "The road was closed from mid-morning, but I was out canvassing all evening and no one in the area knew anything about it."