THE death toll in the Morecambe Bay cockling disaster has risen to 20.

A body, believed to be of Chinese origin, was found washed up on the beach in Morecambe on Sunday at 1.30pm.

It comes 10 days after a group of Chinese cocklers became trapped by rising tides on Thursday, February 5.

Rescue operations on the beach were called off last Saturday evening, February 7.

Police were alerted to the scene by a birdwatcher, who saw the body through his binoculars.

"We have recovered a body from the beach near to the Headway Hotel, and it appears to be of Chinese origin," said Inspector Neil Esseen, of Morecambe police.

"We went to check the situation out and unfortunately we found the dead body between a channel and it was recovered by the RNLI hovercraft."

He said police had been made aware that if there were any victims that had not be recovered, it could be around 10 days later when more were discovered, although not necessarily in the Morecambe area.

He said enquiries were on going and urged anyone who sees anything suspicious around the shores of Morecambe Bay to contact police.

A post mortem was due to be held today (Monday).