Dartmouth police officers and Dartmouth coastguard were searching the town for a missing woman on Tuesday night, in a search that ended in tragedy.

A 35-year-old Dartmouth woman was reported missing at 8.50pm on Tuesday night, prompting a thorough search of the area with concerns over her welfare.

Dartmouth Coastguard were called at 8.15am on Wednesday morning and called for back up from Prawle Point and Berry Head Coastguards and the lifeboat was tasked to search coastline.

The Coastguard team located the casualty at 10am on Wednesday morning in the toilet block of Coronation Park, having suffered a medical episode, and they started resuscitation.Unfortunately she was pronounced dead at 10.24am by paramedics. The air ambulance was originally called to the scene, but was stood down before it arrived. It is thought she may have died of an overdose.

A formal identification had not yet been made.