Residents have spoken of their shock after police recovered the body of a woman from the canal at Mirfield.
Police cordoned off the side of the Calder and Hebble Navigation, close to the Lidl store off Station Road, after residents in a house boat reported seeing a body in the water.
Police said it was too early to say how the woman died. She has not been named and relatives still had to be informed.
Detectives from Kirklees CID have appealed for information from anyone who may have seen a woman going into the water.
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “Police were called to the canal next to the Lidl car park off Station Road, Mirfield, at just after 9am on Tuesday.
“Residents living on a house boat reported seeing a body in the water and police officers attended and recovered the body of an adult woman.”
Police say investigations are at an early stage and it was too early to speculate on how the woman died.”
Officers left the scene and removed police tape just after 1pm.
The woman is thought to be local and staff at nearby pub The Navigation Tavern believe she was in her 30s.
Landlord at the Navigation Kevin O’Donnell said: “I think it’s extremely sad for a young woman. There have been several deaths this year in the canal. I heard that she was only in her early 30s.”
Canal boat residents said they were too upset to talk but some Mirfield residents commented on social media.
Twitter user James Taylor said: “Sad to be reading a young lady has lost her life in the canal in Mirfield, thoughts with her poor family, friends and loved ones. RIP.”
In recent months there have been several waterways tragedies in Kirklees. In March there were four bodies pulled from rivers and canals in Kirklees in less than a month.
