The body of a young British man who went missing while swimming in the Kampot River on Thursday was found by fishermen in a canal on Friday after a search had failed to find him, police said yesterday.

Kampot police chief Nhem Vet said Thomas Hare, 25, a theatre and screen actor from England who went by the stage name Tommy Vine, went missing near the railway bridge that passes over the river in Teuk Chhou district’s Chum Kriel commune.

Vet said that Hare had visited the river with a friend and had jumped from the bridge three times before vanishing under the water.

“The first conclusion is that this could have been caused by cramp or by the victim being drunk,” Vet said.

The friend, 23, had told police Hare had wanted her to take a photo of him jumping off the bridge, Vet said.

Hare’s body was found about 700 metres from the bridge.