THE police are continuing to investigate how the body of a young woman last week ended up in the water off Exmouth.

THE police are continuing to investigate how the body of a young woman last week ended up in the water off Exmouth.

The police said enquiries were ongoing as formal identification involving the young woman's family was continuing.

The grim discovery came on the same day the police issued an appeal to find a 20-year-old woman with learning difficulties who had failed to return to her accommodation.

The police could not confirm the body is that of Emma Hall, who lives in the Thames Valley and who was staying with friends in Dawlish for the week.

The body was pulled from the bight, in the main channel of the river.

The lifeboat crew recovered it from about 15 feet of water, near Bullhill Bank, on the Dawlish side.

Detectives from Exmouth CID, waiting at the dockside, went aboard the lifeboat once the body had been recovered.

The young woman, dressed in jeans and a top, was spotted by a passenger onboard the Exmouth to Starcross ferry.

With the ferry full of passengers and unable to stop, the find was reported to the Exmouth water taxi, who immediately notified Brixham coastguard.

A passing yacht was drafted in to help pinpoint the exact location of the body, to aid the lifeboat crew.

An eyewitness said: "The body was recovered by two lifeboat men and pulled into a small boat.

"They covered her over and waited for the big boat to arrive.

"I saw them transfer the body to the big boat on a stretcher.