ISLE of Wight police officers called in assistance from Hampshire Constabulary after the body of an elderly man was discovered at a property in Ryde on Thursday evening.

The police's Marine Support Unit travelled across The Solent, after a man in his seventies was found dead at an address in Melville Street, at around 6pm.

Police are not treating the death as suspicious and a file is being prepared for the coroner.

A Hampshire Constabulary spokesman was unable to confirm why specialist officers had been drafted in to help from the mainland.