The body of a missing man has been found in a ditch after a police hunt around a Sussex farm pond.

Joseph Brazil, 28, of Hurstpierpoint, was found in a ditch off Furners Lane, Henfield, this afternoon.

He had gone missing around the same time as two of his friends fell into a pond at nearby Swains Farm. One of them remains critically ill at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton.

A police spokesman said: "We will treat this as a suspicious death until it is proved otherwise."

Police were first called to a field near Swains Farm at 1.40pm yesterday after a report of an abandoned van. Officers inspected the vehicle but found no one and left.

They were then called out again at 4.07pm after being told that a man was trapped in the pond.

Firefighters arrived to find him floating unconscious in the water. The police helicopter flew him to Worthing Hospital and he was transferred by road to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, where his condition is critical.

A second man who also fell into the pond had hypothermia and was taken to Worthing Hospital. He was later released.

An underwater search team was called in to search the pond after Mr Brazil was reported missing.