'Badly decomposed' whale washes up on Southwold beach

The body of the whale was found washed up on Southwold beach on Sunday

The body of a whale has been found on a beach about 40 miles from where another was found last week.

HM Coastguard Lowestoft said it was called to what was "likely to be a small minke whale", found washed up on the beach at Southwold on Suffolk, at about 10:00 BST on Sunday.

East Suffolk Council said work had begun to remove the carcass, which it described as "badly decomposed".

A 40ft fin whale was found near Clacton in Essex on Friday.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the minke whale is the smallest of the rorqual whales (which have parallel, pleated throat grooves) with females reaching an average length of 8.5m (27.8ft) and males growing to about 8m (27.2ft).

A spokeswoman for the council said: "Due to the condition of the whale, which appears to have been dead for some time, it has not been possible to identify the species at this stage."

The "badly decomposed" carcass was cordoned of while HM Coastguard arranged for it to be removed

East Suffolk Council said the whale appears to have been dead for some time