Police are asking Dorset residents if they know the identity of the male body washed up on a beach on Hayling Island in Hampshire on New Year’s Day.

Police are now widening the search to Dorset and nearby counties in an attempt to find out who he is.

The body, which is believed to have been in the water for up to a week, was found by a member of the public on the beach at around 8.56am.

The white man is thought to be aged between 50 and 60 years, about 6ft 5ins in height and of stocky build.

He has crew-cut receding grey hair and was wearing a set of dentures on the upper right portion of his mouth.

He was dressed in a black shirt, Easy (brand name) jeans, brown coloured Chelsea-style boots – size 44 – and wore a black plastic Casio digital watch.

Police are hoping to identify him through a number of tattoos, including a skull and crossbones on his right upper arm, a dagger through a heart with scrolls top and bottom with the words ‘mum & dad’ on his lower inside right arm as well as an eagle head with a scroll saying ‘Eric’ and a skull wearing a Native American headdress.

On his right forearm there is a bird tattoo, on the upper part of his left arm there is a tattoo of the Welsh feathers with the words ‘Forever Wales’ and on the lower left arm a black panther, a skull, horns and a face.

Anyone with any information can contact Hampshire Police on 0845 045 45 45.