Body found after bridge fall

MOTORISTS watched in horror as a man plunged to his death from the Orwell bridge.

Police were called to the A14 at Wherstead just after 4.25pm yesterday when they received a report of a person being spotted jumping from the 160ft bridge.

A short time later ambulance and police officers located a body, believed to be that of a male, near the B1456 road to Shotley.

The identity of the person has not been released but circumstances surrounding the death are not thought to be suspicious.

The death came just hours after Thames coastguard called off a search for a body after a similar report of a person falling from the bridge just before 1.30am yesterday .

Coastguards, a lifeboat crew and police searched a stretch of the river following a call from a motorist saying they thought they had seen someone fall from the bridge.

However the search was abandoned at about noon yesterday, after teams scoured the water and banks for almost five hours.

Thames coastguard was co-ordinating the search and a spokeswoman said: "We conducted a thorough search of the area and nothing was found so far."

Initiall the search involved coastguards and the police helicopter with an infra-red camera launched a search.

The operation was suspended until about 7.30am when conditions were easier.

Two coastguard teams, from Felixstowe and Holbrook, scoured the banks of the river on foot while the Harwich inshore lifeboat trawled the waters but still nothing was found.

There were no plans to resume the search unless new information was received and it is unclear if the two incidents are connected.

Police, coastguards and a lifeboat crew were again called to the Orwell Bridge yesterday evening after reports of another man saying he would jump from the bridge.

The incident at 7.08pm marked the third call to the bridge yesterday.

The Harwich lifeboat, Felixstowe coastguard and Suffolk Police officers were all called to the bridge and the incident ended without any injuries.