By SAMANTHA HEALY

ANOTHER body has surfaced in the Tweed River ? the third since the beginning of October.

The body of a 56-year-old man, believed to be a local itinerant, was found floating face down in the river yesterday at Murwillumbah.

Detectives have been called in to investigate the death.

Senior Constable Steve Phillips said the man had no fixed address and had been living in a makeshift residence in bushland near the river.

"It would appear he has fallen in and drowned," Sen Const Phillips said.

"Police are not treating his death as suspicious as yet. We are waiting on postmortem results."

The body was initially spotted by a group of children about 9am, floating in the river near the Tweed Shire Council Chambers on Tumbulgum Road. They then notified Murwillumbah resident Glenn Nott, who in turn called police.

"I saw it (the body) at about 9am," Mr Nott said. "It was just floating in the river so I just called the police.

"I didn't recognise the man. It was a shock. You don't see a body floating in the river very often."

Removal of the man's body was made more difficult by the relatively steep terrain of the river bank which was also quite muddy. The body was removed by police with the help of the Tweed District Rescue Squad by 11am.

The man is the third person to have died in the Tweed River in the past month.

On October 5 the body of a 61-year-old Tweed Heads man was found by emergency crews near the

Cobaki Inlet after he had jumped to his death from Boyd's Bay Bridge.

Several days later a 69-year-old British tourist fell from a houseboat and could not be revived when found by some South Tweed residents some time later.

It was believed the man had been fishing on the front of the boat while his wife was on the back when he fell in.

Police could not confirm if the man found yesterday had any relatives.