POLICE have revealed that a body found near a Southampton railway station yesterday afternoon belonged to a middle-aged man.

The body was discovered at 3pm in a carpark about 200 yards south of the central station by a 23-year-old man who had been walking his dog.

Yesterday officers sealed off part of the carpark while teams conducted interviews with commuters and station employees, however the cordon was lifted at around 7pm.

Police said they were treating the find as a "sudden and unexplained death", adding that it was not being treated as "suspicious".

A spokeswoman for Hampshire police said: "We were informed at 3pm yesterday by a member of the public that a body had been discovered in a car park south of the central railway station.

"Until we have looked into the circumstances further and a post mortem examination is carried out we will not be sure what we are dealing with.

"In the meantime we are continuing our investigations.

"There were no obvious signs of trauma and we are treating the death as sudden and unexplained, not suspicious."

The body was taken to Southampton General Hospital yesterday evening, and a post mortem examination is expected to be carried out today.