A MAN'S body has been found in a river in a busy town centre in "unexplained" circumstances, police said.

Officers sealed off the area and set up diversions after the discovery in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, on Saturday morning.

The remains were later pulled from the Kilmarnock Water and taken to Crosshouse Hospital, where a post mortem examination is due to take place.

A spokesman for Police Scotland said last night: "At around 11.50am on Saturday, February 8, the body of a man was found in the water near to London Road in Kilmarnock.

"The death is being treated as unexplained."

The dead man was named locally as James Duffy, who was understood to have been in his late 40s and from the nearby village of Crookedholm.