POLICE divers say their underwater finger-tip search on the bed of a North Yorkshire canal where an Oriental man’s body was found with serious facial injuries could last for days to come.

A six-man team from West Yorkshire Police Underwater Search Unit is carrying out a complex search for evidence in Selby Canal, upstream and downstream of Burn Bridge where the body was found by an angler last Friday. In their 40-minute dives in the cold water, the frogmen are carrying out a complicated underwater grid search so that not a square foot is missed. But because visibility at the canal bed is only inches from their facemasks, the divers are virtually relying on touch to make their search.

A spokesman for the unit said they expected to be there for many days to come. The team is from West Yorkshire Police because North Yorkshire Police disbanded their underwater unit many years ago.

Meanwhile, detectives have still not managed to determine the man’s nationality, though some of his clothing was made in China and police are considering the theory that he may have been trafficked into Britain illegally.

Detective Superintendent Karnail Dulku said the man could be Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese or have come from some other country in south-east Asia, but he was seeking help from an anthropologist in trying to establish his country of origin. DS Dulku has issued an appeal for help in identifying the man, whose body is believed to have been in the canal near the village of Burn for two or three weeks.