AN open verdict has been recorded on the body of a man found in the River Severn last month.

The inquest into the death of Alan Green, aged 70, of Manor Road, Stetchford, Birmingham, was held in Worcester yesterday.

Mr Green's body was retrieved from beneath the Worcester Bridge on the River Severn on Tuesday, June 17, by the Severn Area Rescue Association, after a couple walking over the bridge spotted it.

The police were then alerted and officers spent more than an hour escorting pedestrians past the busy traffic on Tybridge Street while members of SARA worked to recover the body.

Decomposed

Worcestershire's deputy coroner, Tim Sherwood, recorded an open verdict.

Speaking after the inquest yesterday, coroner's officer Bob Taylor said the cause of Mr Green's death couldn't be established because the body was too decomposed after being in the water for so long.

He said it was possible Mr Green had fallen into the river at Stourport-on-Severn, as it was a favourite place of his to go and his body had been washed downstream to Worcester.

He added that identification had proved difficult but had finally been made by a friend in Birmingham who was shown a photo of the body.