Body in sea thought to be that of missing man

The alarm was raised by two yachtsmen sailing near Brough on Saturday morning.

Mr Gibson’s family and friends along with hundreds of members of the public have been scouring the city for the 21-year-old since he vanished on Saturday January 28 on a night out in Hull’s Old Town.

Last week his mother Gillian Gilson said she was still hoping he was coming back home. Over 24,000 people joined an appeal to find him through the social networking website Facebook.

The painter and decorator was seen by CCTV cameras walking onto the Drypool Bridge at 10.17pm but not coming off the other side.

Police said personal property on the body matched that of the 21-year-old’s, but there had been no formal identification. A post mortem will be held this week.

Dave Roberts, chairman of the inshore lifeboat Humber Rescue, said the coastguard alerted them to object in the water found by two yachtsmen near Brough. “Humber Rescue recovered the body and handed him over to the police at the boathouse in Hessle.”

Over the weekend hundreds of people left messages of condolence on the Internet. One said: “May Stuart finally rest in peace safe in the knowledge that he was, is and always will be cherished by his amazing family and friends.”

There have been a number of deaths in the river in recent years. In 2010 Patrick Stewart, 29, drowned after falling into the Dock Basin, near Drypool Bridge. At the time there were no guard rails in the area or lighting and his family said it was “too easy” for someone to fall in.