An angler has told how he found a body floating face-down in a lake near a Colchester housing estate.

Gary Caunter was fishing with two friends near the Greenstead estate when they made the discovery.

He told the Gazette how they called police to the small lake, behind Scarfe Way, at 5pm yesterday.

"My mate waded in to check it out. We could tell it was a body," said the 22-year-old, of Scarfe Way.

"It was weird and a bit shocking, I saw the back of his head and his shoulders."

A team of detectives and uniformed police officers cordoned off the area as shocked onlookers stood by and a police helicopter flew overhead.

Rosemary Sainty, 36, whose flat overlooks the lake, said: "It's quite daunting to know something like this has happened right outside.

"I came back from work to see the police everywhere.

"I've been here 13 years and it's the first time anything like this has happened."

An Essex Police spokesman said police were "investigating the circumstances surrounding the discovery".