The mother of missing backpacker Gareth Huntley has been asked to provide a DNA sample by police trying to identify a body found by searchers trying to locate him.

Janet Southwell, from Bradford, travelled to Malaysia after Gareth, 34, who was educated at Woodhouse Grove School in Apperley Bridge, disappeared after setting out on a trek on Tioman Island.

A badly-decomposed body has been found, which the authorities do not believe to be a local man, but identification has not been possible.

It is expected that results of DNA testing will not be available before Sunday.

Reports from Malaysia suggest there were no signs of external injury on the body. It was discovered a short distance from where Gareth, who had been living in London before going to Malaysia to work on the Juara Turtle Project, was staying.