The police and Coastguard helicopters are scouring the river bank in Truro after a young woman’s body was discovered this morning.
Emergency services were called to Garras Wharf, behind the large Tesco store, shortly after 10am after a member of the public reported that a woman was lying on the river bank.
Sadly, the woman was pronounced dead in hospital a short time later.
Speaking at the scene earlier today Inspector Rick Milburn said officers remained “open minded” in regards to the circumstances surrounding the young woman’s death.
He added that specialist teams would be trawling the river in a bid to “paint a picture” as to what happened.
Helicopters have now been called in to search along the river bank.
A spokesperson from Devon and Cornwall Police said: “HM Coastguard and the police helicopter have been deployed to carry our searches of the river bank.
“Police are carrying out enquiries to establish the circumstances of the death and ascertain the identity of the woman.”
Insp Milburn said: “We received a call from a concerned member of the public to report what they believed to be a deceased female on the other side of the river bank behind me.
“We have obviously attended in the first instance and we have set up some cordons on the main road. That’s normal procedure. What’s really important in events like this is that we rule out third party involvement or suspicious circumstances."
He continued: “As is often the case, paramedics have attended to pronounce life extinct and in any case where there is a suspected drowning the individual is taken to hospital for death to be confirmed. In this point in time, that’s what’s happened in terms of the female.”
“The scene [cordon] remains in place behind me and specialist officers will be down later today to trawl the river bank and to make sure we fully understand the scene this woman was in.”
This morning, he said it was too early to say whether there was any third party involvement.
Cordons are expected to remain in place for several hours while police analyse the scene.
Insp Millburn said: “We have got the challenge of the tide, which means we will have to expedite our enquiries somewhat but we have got officers en route and we will be working to try to conduct those enquiries as quickly as we can and then close down those scenes.”
