Sawn-off shotgun found in a river

A sawn-off shotgun has been found on the bed of a Suffolk river by volunteer divers carrying out a clean-up.

The single barrelled pump action weapon was pulled out of the River Gipping in Ipswich on Sunday.

The gun was handed into Suffolk police who will forensically examine it and carry out tests.

The five divers also cleared out shopping trolleys and bicycles as part of an annual riverside clean-up which saw over 100 people taking part.

'Fairly rusty'

David Cursons, who works for the local company Diveline, said: "I brought about three items up and the last one I looked at was a sawn off shotgun in my hand.

"It was fairly rusty, but then things don't have to be in the river very long to get that rusty.

"In the conditions you could be putting your hand on anything really.

"Because we're doing this under bridges where people come to lob things over, it's not surprising what you might find."

The clean-up on the riverbed and its banks also recovered about 50 shopping trolleys, 25 bicycles, 10 motorbikes and a bus stop sign.