Man found dead at sea in St Paul's Bay

The police were yesterday trying to identify a man who was found dead floating in the sea at Dawret il-Gżejjer, St Paul's Bay, early in the morning.

The corpse, which showed no signs of violence, is probably that of a foreigner who had not been in the sea for long, the police said.

Initial suspicions that he was an illegal immigrant - one of the many who perish at sea during their dangerous crossing from Africa to Europe - did not hold up after the police examined the corpse. They cited the circumstances in which the body was found and the fact that the corpse was not decomposed.

The police said that someone notified officers on duty at about 4 a.m. that the corpse of a man had been sighted floating face down in the sea at Dawret il-Gżejjer.

In an effort to identify the corpse, the police issued a description of the man. He is 5'8" tall, slightly built and has a dark complexion and short black hair. He was wearing a white top with another black-coloured top underneath, black tracksuit trousers with white stripes and white and black training shoes.

The police is asking anyone having any information on the man, on the basis of the description, to contact them, even confidentially, on 119. Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani appointed a team of court experts to help in an inquiry.

A postmortem examination on the corpse was held at the hospital mortuary yesterday morning.