Mystery surrounds the identity of a man whose body was found floating in the English Channel.

An inquest opened today into the death of an unknown man after the coastguard spotted him in British waters and brought him to Dover lifeboat station.

A postmortem revealed his cause of death was consistent with drowning but this is pending further investigation.

Coroner Bina Patel opened the inquest at Oakwood House, Maidstone this morning.

“He was found deceased on November 5 at 2.55pm in British waters in the English Channel and identification for this unknown male is pending,” she said.

“The circumstances is the coastguard was alerted to a body seen floating face down in the English Channel.

“They recovered the body and brought it to the lifeboat station in Dover.”

She told the hearing the man was “heavily decomposed” and police are continuing to try to identify him.

“The deceased appeared to be in the water for a long period of time,” she added.

“The cause of death following a postmortem was consistent with drowning and emersion pending further investigation.”

An inquest will be listed following confirmation of identification from police.

RNLI volunteers, police and the coastguard helicopter were all called to Dover last Tuesday following the discovery of the body.

It followed a rescue operation on Monday evening when four bodies were later discovered adrift in the water near Calais.

French authorities rescued 51 people after the boat they were on suffered an engine failure.