Day flipper: Seal pays a visit to east London docks

Perhaps it just needed to get out of the chilly Thames for a bit.

This seal was spotted by a Standard reader as it rested on a wildfowl raft at St Saviour's dock, near Butler's Wharf and Tower Bridge.

Mark Roach, who works at a nearby office, said: "It looked quite odd stuck there on the raft. We normally get a lot of wildfowl there but this is the first time we have seen a seal."

According to the RSPCA, who were called to attend, it may be the same one seen in the area about a year ago.

A spokeswoman said: "The seal seemed to be perfectly happy so there was no reason to intervene. We think it may have been the same one that was there before as they do sometimes return to familiar places."