Handcuffed body found in Southampton river identified

A man who ran away from police officers rather than face a drug search has been found dead in a nearby river, still wearing the handcuffs officers had used to detain him.

The handcuffed body was spotted on Sunday in the water at Riverside Park, in the north of Southampton.

“The discovery came after the park was cordoned off following a bomb being found in the river” by a magnet fisherman, the Southern Daily Echo reports.

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Police have now confirmed that the body is that of a 22-year-old man who fled a police search more than two months earlier.

The deceased, who has not been named, was stopped by officers in the Hampshire city on 12 January as part of a drugs investigation.

He was placed in handcuffs and warned that if a search found drugs on his person, he faced arrest.

Instead, the suspect ran away, still wearing the restraints. Despite a manhunt, police were unable to find a trace of him - until the handcuffed body surfaced on Sunday.

“Initial inquiries suggest the body had been in the water for some time,” said a spokesman for Hampshire Constabulary.

“It is not known whether the man entered the water by accident or in an attempt to evade police,” the BBC reports.

The death is currently being treated as non-suspicious. Police are preparing a file for a forthcoming coroner’s inquest.