The body of a whale which washed up on a Sussex beach has been removed and “taken away for scientific research”.

The northern bottlenose whale died in the early hours of Sunday, August 20, after becoming stuck on East beach in Rustington near Littlehampton on Saturday.

Now, Arun District Council has confirmed that the whale has been removed to try and find out what led to its death.

A spokeswoman for the council said: “The coastal team dealing with the deceased whale has confirmed that it has now been removed from Rustington beach.

“It has been taken away for scientific research and if we find out what happened, we will provide an update.”

The whale, whose species is usually found in the North Atlantic Ocean, washed up at around 1.30pm on Saturday and the coastguard, marine rescue teams and a vet tried to rescue it. The whale died at around 2.45am on Sunday morning.

A spokesman for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue team who helped tend to the whale said the death is being looked into by the Cetacean Stranding Investigation Programme.

The northern bottlenose whale is 5.4m long and weighs five tons.

The whales generally feed on deep-water squid and can dive as far as 1,400m.