A man found dead at a picturesque stretch of the River Thame on Sunday has been named as 22-year-old student Mzuzile Ncube.

His body was found near a popular fishing spot at Cuddeson Mill on Sunday afternoon after he apparently took his own life.

A close friend, who asked not to be named, said Mzuzile, from Zimbabwe, had crashed his mother’s car earlier in the day.

He told the New Zimbabwe newspaper: “Mzuzile was rushing to Oxford to see his girlfriend, with a plan to get back in time to London to pick up his mum who was finishing work in the morning.

“When he failed to turn up at the mother’s workplace, that’s when people became aware something had gone wrong”.

The friend added: “It looks like he knew what he was going to do next when he left the scene because he left all his identification particulars at the crash scene, which made it easy for the police to know who they were looking for.”

Thames Valley Polcie spokesman Rebecca Webber said paramedics tried to revive him, but he was declared dead at the scene.

Police said they were not treating his death as suspicious.

By Staff reporter and agencies