Two teenagers were walking along the Cospicua promenade at about noon yesterday when they spotted the body of Anthony Azzopardi, 68, floating face down in the former dock.

They informed the police, and two officers jumped into the water to retrieve the lifeless body.

Sources said police officers recognised Mr Azzopardi, who lived in Ħamrun, because he was familiar to them from the days when he used to work as a parker in the Valletta ditch, better known as the Yellow Garage.

It does not appear that anyone witnessed Mr Azzopardi fall into the sea.

The people who assembled in the area when the body was recovered said they had not seen anything and did not know who the man was.

We were just walking past and saw the man, face down. He was wearing normal clothes and one of his shoes was floating close by

There were no indications of foul play, though the sources have said that investigators would be looking at CCTV footage to try to establish what had happened to Mr Azzopardi.

An autopsy, to be carried out this morning, will help determine the cause of death and shed more light on the case.

It will also help determine what time Mr Azzopardi fell into the water.

“We were walking past and saw the man, face down. He was wearing normal clothes and one of his shoes was floating close by,” Christian Martin, 17, said. At the time he was with his friend, Dynalee Vella, 19.

They said they had not seen the man fall into the water but saw him floating close to the bridge. Mr Martin said he ran to the nearby police station to inform them about the man. Four officers followed him to the scene, and two of them jumped in and recovered the body.

Duty Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera was then informed.