The Sri Lanka Navy has recovered the body of the British journalist Paul McClean from the lagoon near Crocodile Rock in Panama, near Arugam Bay.

The 25-year-old journalist went missing yesterday and is believed to have been snatched by a crocodile when he went to wash his hands in the lagoon.

Eyewitnesses said they saw him waving his hands frantically in the air before being dragged under.

McClean, an Oxford graduate, was holidaying in Sri Lanka with friends when the incident occurred.