A body believed to be that of a missing diver was found after a major search off the south Dorset coast.

The large-scale search had been mounted after Matthew Green, 33, failed to surface after going scallop diving 2.5km off Durdle Door on Tuesday.

Extensive searches were carried out throughout Tuesday afternoon and yesterday involving HM Coastguard and the RNLI.

Mr Green is well known in the fishing community, working off Lulworth Cove and also at Dartmouth in Devon.

Yesterday a number of fellow divers also travelled to the area where Mr Green had been working, in a bid to retrace his movements.

Police said that a body had been found in the water early on Wednesday afternoon and, while formal identification was yet to take place, the body was believed to be that of Mr Green.

Mr Green’s family have been made aware and are being supported by officers, police said.

Father-of-two Mr Green, a professional scallop diver who lived in Mudeford, Christchurch, married his partner of six years Mandy just five weeks ago.

His brother Robert Carter-Lovell said: “He was scallop diving as usual, his last bag came up but he simply didn’t follow. He just didn’t come up.

“After the alarm was raised a huge search operation took place.”

Chief Inspector Alan Setchell of Dorset Police said: “Our thoughts are with Matthew’s family at what must be an extremely difficult time and we will do everything we can to support them.

“I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the search effort over the past two days.”

The search which covered a wide area area from Osmington to Kimmeridge began in the wake of reports of a missing diver around midday on Tuesday.

Both RNLI lifeboats from Weymouth were launched after Solent Coastguard received reports that Mr Green was missing in the Lulworth Banks area.

Other parties joined the search over the course of the afternoon, including two range safety boats and the coastguard helicopter from Lee-on-Solent, while the all-weather Shannon-class lifeboat from Swanage joined around 6pm to search a 10-mile area south of Tyneham.

As darkness fell and with nothing found the search was suspended on Tuesday.

Weymouth lifeboats re-launched to continue the search at around 9.45 am on Wednesday, along with rescue crews from the coastguard, while the coastguard helicopter was also requested for use.

Weymouth RNLI Lifeboat Coxswain Andy Sargent said: “This is not the outcome that we were all hoping for; we offer our sincere condolences to his family and friends at this very sad time.”