Essex pond centre of serious police operation as 'body found'

Essex Police officers were deployed to Distillery Pond, in Colchester, shortly before 5pm on Monday after a concerned member of the public called the force.

It is understood the report was made following a sighting of a figure which was floating in the water, prompting a wide-scale retrieval operation.

One eyewitness, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was taken aback to see such a huge police presence and saddened after finding out why officers were there.

He said: “The police had been there all night as far as I am aware and they were still outside looking this morning.

“There were forensic teams, search and rescue divers, and lots of police vans and vehicles and in a roundabout way I was told a body had been found in the water.”

Lee Scordis, Colchester councillor for Old Heath and the Hythe, has now extended his well-wishes to the person’s loved ones.

He said: “I was not actually aware of this until a short while ago, so it is obviously being kept quiet and I have not seen any police cars, but it is quite a secluded area.

“Obviously, my thoughts are with any families who know the person whose body had been found – it is really sad and just so shocking.

“Distillery Pond is quite a quiet area so I imagine it will be quite a shock for residents to see all this going on – let’s hope it is just a one-off.

“I also want to thank the police for their hard work because we all have to consider how tough and depressing their job can be at times dealing with incidents like this.”

Essex Police have now said they will strive to inform the public of any further developments as quickly as possible.

A spokesman for Essex Police: “Specialist teams remain at Distillery Pond, in Colchester, following up on a report made shortly before 5pm yesterday.

“There is a small police cordon in place whilst that investigation is carried out. We will provide an update as soon as we practically can.”