THE incoming tide has now lapped over the foreshore close to a Grays pub where two bodies were discovered this morning.

Emergency workers and forensic teams had cleared the site by midday and the Wharf pub opened as normal.

The only sign that anything had happened was a single discarded forensic glove where one of the bodies, a man, was found but it was soon washed away as the incoming tide covered the beach.

The scene had been a hive of activity earlier with emergency vehicles, including the RNLI lifeboat from Gravesend offshore, at the scene in numbers.

The two bodies, the first a woman, were lifted from the gravelly beach over the riverside wall by an Essex Fire Brigade aerial platform.

Landlady at the Wharf, Dawn Gregory, watched as the bodies were brought to the pub's car park and said: "It was horrible to see.

"This is the second time that it's happened while I have been here. It was a lady last time.

"I am just sorry for their loss. It's so sad. It's a horrible loss for anybody."

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She confirmed that police had viewed CCTV of the car park from the pub's car par park and the police have taken copies in the hope it might help their investigation.

Police say they believe the deaths are not linked and are being treated as separate incidents.

A regular at the pub, who asked not to be named, said he fishes off a promontory close to the pub and the foreshore where the bodies lay and said: "It's a bend in the river and the currents sweep in here. Given the recent high tides and high water levels together with Storm Ciara, perhaps that has something to do with it."

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