Thames dolphin dead

A bottle-nosed dolphin like the one in the Thames

A sick dolphin spotted in the River Thames has died.

The 10ft bottle-nosed dolphin was found on the bank of the River Thames in Wapping on Sunday.

A post-mortem examination is to be carried out on the mammal, which drew crowds of onlookers when it was on the surface.

It had been spotted swimming up and down the Thames, mainly between Wapping and Blackfriars Bridge.

Margaux Dodds, director of the whale and dolphin charity Marine Connection, said: "We had been monitoring it for two weeks and we had the vet out and we went out and looked at the animal.

"We got as close as we could in the boat last week and it had a lot of muscle wastage and was very, very thin and looked quite sick."

The dolphin is thought to have been separated from its group somewhere along the coast and ended up in the Thames.