POLICE investigating a vehicle that plunged off cliffs have discovered a body.

Emergency services have been battling the high tide and poor weather to get to the vehicle, which went over Culver Cliffs on the Isle of Wight in the early hours of this morning.

The man has not yet been formally identified, but detectives are informing the family of a man missing from his Newport home since this morning about the discovery.

Reports of the cliff fall came a short time after they were alerted by a member of the public, at 2.52am, of concerns for the welfare of a 20-year-old, who it is believed had driven off from his home in a van.

The man was still missing this morning, and police said officers were in contact with his family.

A Hampshire police marine unit vessel was sent to the coast off Culver, between Sandown and Bembridge, to assess the state of the vehicle, confirm its identity, and discover whether anyone is inside.

The incoming tide and bad weather hampered any attempts to recover the vehicle, but this afternoon police confirmed the grim discovery.

A force spokesman said the death is not being treated as suspicious.

He added there is no evidence to suggest suspicious circumstances or a crime having taken place, and said the vehicle had not been reported stolen and was not being pursued by police.

Last year two people died when their car crashed over the same 340 foot cliff.

Paul Charles, 53, and Jacqueline Charles, 48, were killed when the blue Renault Scenic they were in drove off the cliffs and crashed on to the beach.

An inquest heard the couple could not live without each other.