Police have launched a murder inquiry after the discovery of bags containing human bones in a river.

Officers were called just after 4.35pm yesterday afternoon, Thursday 27 August, after bones were discovered inside two black bin bags.

The bags were recovered from the River Stour near Meadow Gates and Croft Bridge in Sudbury.

A member of the public had spotted the bags in the river earlier in the afternoon and reported them to a ranger, who in turn called police following the discovery of the bones.

A shopping trolley was found a little further along the river from where the bags were located.

The bags were moved by the ranger before their contents had been established.

As a result of this, two police scenes are currently place – one around the area of the river where the bags were discovered and the other around the spot where the bags were moved to.

The bones have now been confirmed to be human remains and due to the suspicious circumstances in which they were found, detectives are treating this as a murder investigation.

A sensitive and methodical process will now take place over the coming days as the bones are examined and forensic tests are conducted.

Various other investigative work and searches will also be carried-out, which will need to utilise a number of specialist resources.

The force said the process will be time-consuming and so there are not likely to be any significant developments in the early stages.

A Home Office post-mortem examination is due to take place tomorrow, Saturday August 29.

Inspector Kevin Horton, Local Policing Commander for Sudbury, said: “We appreciate that local residents are likely to find this discovery alarming and as such we will be increasing police patrols in the town to provide reassurance.

"Officers are also likely to remain at the scene over the weekend and in to the early part of next week.

“Discoveries such as this are extremely rare – especially in Suffolk – and as such we do not believe there is any cause for concern to members of the public.

“We would ask anyone with information about this discovery to make contact with the Major Investigation Team immediately.

"This includes anyone who believes they saw the bags in the river prior to yesterday afternoon, or saw the shopping trolley either in this location or elsewhere along the river.”

Anyone with information about this discovery is asked to contact the Major Investigation Team, either via our online portal here: https://mipp.police.uk/operation/363720N59-PO1 or by calling 101.

Detectives would also like to hear from anyone who may have driven their vehicle in the vicinity of the croft since Monday August 24 and has a dash cam fitted, to review the footage to see if they captured anything of significance.