Body found in marshland hours after illegal rave

A body has been found in an area of marshland near to where an illegal rave was held just hours earlier.

A man working on the Somerleyton estate called police at 9am today (Sunday, May 20) to say he had found a man's body in the marshes.

Suffolk Police said the body was in an area close to where an unlicensed music event (UME) had occurred hours earlier.

Officers had initially been called to a remote area of the village at 1.15am by the British Transport Police.

The transport police were alerted to the rave by a crew of overnight engineers working for Network Rail.

A Suffolk police spokesman said officers attended the scene, but found the event to be taking place in an isolated area with no properties nearby.

'They [the officers] remained in the area and monitored the event until it came to an end at around 6.25am,' the police spokesman said.

It is understood that the rave was not attended by a large number of people.

'At 9am this morning, police were called by a man working on the Somerleyton estate reporting that he believed he had discovered a body in the marshes.

'This was in an area close to where the UME had occurred.'

The spokesman said there was nothing at this stage to formally link the death with the rave – but investigations were continuing.

Police said the death is currently being treated as unexplained, but there are not believed to be any suspicious circumstances.

A spokesman said a file will be prepared for the coroner.

Somerleyton village is about five miles north west of Lowestoft – and while it is dominated by Somerleyton Hall and the village centre, it is geographically very large.

There are large areas of marshland that are quite remote and can be seen most easily from the train. But the track is some distance from the centre of the village so it would not be surprising that homes were not disturbed by the noise from the event.