A second body has been pulled from the sea after an abandoned dinghy was found close to Brighton yesterday.
The tragic discovery was made shortly before 9am following a major search operation.
It comes after the body of another man - believed to be a friend - was recovered from the water off Hove just after 5pm yesterday.
The second man was discovered after police lifeboat crews and the coastguard helicopter scoured the sea.
Emergency crews were alerted after an unattended dinghy was found floating at Lancing at around 1.40pm yesterday afternoon, Sussex Live reports.
The second man was found just after 8.45am.
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A Sussex Police spokesperson said: "A second body has been recovered from the sea by RNLI lifeboat crews and HM Coastguard who were searching after a dinghy was found floating empty in the sea off Shoreham on Monday (August 10).
"The body of a man was recovered by the RNLI Shoreham lifeboat from the sea off Brighton just after 5pm on Monday afternoon.
"He has not been formally identified at this time, but it is believed to be that of a man linked to the small, unoccupied dinghy that had been found at 1.40pm.
"During enquiries to confirm the identity of the man it became apparent that his friend was also missing and a search continued at sea on Monday evening and resumed on Tuesday morning.
"Around 8.45am, a body was spotted by the crew of a Coastguard helicopter and was picked up by the Shoreham lifeboat crew.
"It has not formally identified, but is believed to be that of the missing man."
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