THE corpse of a man in his mid 30s has been recovered from the foot of a cliff on the Cleveland coast.

A member of the public alerted the Coastguard today when the owner’s distressed dog was seen roaming around an area at Huntcliff, near Saltburn.

The police helicopter was scrambled shortly after 10am and Redcar Lifeboat was called but the operation quickly turned from a rescue operation to a recovery of the man’s body.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

A spokesman for Redcar Lifeboat said both lifeboats were put to sea to help recover the body, which was located to the east of the Ship Inn at Saltburn.

He said: “We received a call to assist with a search of a person at 10.06am but the Coastguard team found a male casualty. We took the person on board a stretcher and a policeman came with us on the lifeboat as we took the casualty into Redcar.”

A police spokesman explained the young dog, at the top of the cliff, was seen roaming the area for about an hour before the Coastguard were alerted shortly after 10am. Dog wardens from Redcar Council took the agitated dog to a vet’s.

Police are trying to locate the man’s next of kin.