Body found after canoe-trip friends vanished in crocodile river

Forty-two year old York resident Ian Turton, was on an excursion along the Cauvery River with his friend Mike Easton, 62, a senior research scientist, when they disappeared.

Mr Turton, from the Huntington area of York, has been heading a project at Tenneco Automotive, in Hosur, in Tamil Nadu.

The pair set out on Saturday and apparently asked a cab driver to pick them up at the hotel on the Monday morning.

However, when he arrived to collect them he found they had not returned.

He informed Tenneco officials who in turn notified the police.

Indian authorities are understood to have contacted Mr Turton’s family earlier to say his body had been found.

It has however not confirmed if Mr Easton has been found.

A police search was launched following the disappearance involving divers and helicopters but hopes of finding them alive began to fade after their empty and damaged canoe was found on Wednesday.

It was close to a known danger spot in the river which is populated with crocodiles although it is not clear if they were attacked by them.

Mr Turton’s family were notified on Monday about his disappearance, after his Polish girlfriend, Ania Marcol, was told by his employer that he had failed to return from his trip.

His brother Nigel had previously spoken of his family’s desperate hope he might still be alive.

Speaking before the discovery of the body, Mr Turton’s brother Nigel said: “It’s getting harder and harder as time is going on.

“Myself and my brother Philip have applied for Indian visas should the worst happen and we need to go out to deal with paperwork.

“I last spoke with him on Friday. He told me about his planned trip but I was not worried.

“He is always up to something, he has been all over the world on different adventures but he has never been late to his rendezvous point.”

Indian police had previously issued a local appeal for information or sightings of the two men, and have released pictures and descriptions of both.

Sources said the canoe was discovered near a dangerous area in the river, where the water is particularly fast-flowing.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We can confirm the death of a British national, Ian Turton, while on an excursion on the Cauvery river near Bangalore, India.

“We are providing consular assistance to the family.”