POLICE are investigating after a body was found in woodland.

Specialist officers were called to the scene on the Isle of Wight after the grim discovery was made by a man walking his dog.

Detectives say they are keeping an "open mind" about the circumstances of the death, but it does not appear to be suspicious.

Tests are currently being carried out to identify the dead man, who was found in dense woodland, near to Priory Road in Shanklin.

Police have informed the family of missing Island man Luke Cowan, which they say they have done "as a matter of course".

Luke, 18, disappeared from his home in Newport on June 16, and was last seen at around 10pm that night in the town's Chicago Rock nightclub, with two men and two women.

It is thought he had met the women at the Isle of Wight festival the weekend before.

There was also an unconfirmed sighting of him a week later, at approximately 1.40pm on June 23, when he was seen getting off a Southern Vectis bus in Landguard Road, Shanklin, near Somerfield supermarket.