THE family of a young man who drowned in an accident off the coast of Greece has had to postpone his funeral arrangements indefinitely.

Laurence Hallmann, of Colden Common, died more than a fortnight ago but his body has still not been formally identified by the Greek authorities.

His parents, who will not be required to travel to Greece to identify their son, have decided to wait until his body is returned to the UK before making any plans.

They had originally hoped to hold a funeral and celebratory reception last Friday.

Family friend, Marilyn Michalowicz said: "The arrangements have been postponed indefinitely until there is some development in Greece. There does seem to be some progress but it is happening very slowly."

Laurence, also known as Larry, drowned just days before his 24th birthday. His body was found off the island of Levkas in the Ionian Sea after he is believed to have gone swimming alone at night.

He had travelled to Greece from his family home in Tees Farm Road to start a job as an outdoor pursuits worker.

Larry was a well-known member of his local community and a former pupil of Colden Common Primary School, Kings' School and Peter Symonds College.

He had recently completed an HND course in outdoor education at Falmouth College in Cornwall.

Mrs Michalowicz added: "The family are waiting for Larry to come back to this country before they fix a date for anything. They are drawing on some amazing support from family and all of theirs and Larry's friends. They are waiting patiently for the Greek authorities to help the situation."

She confirmed that the Foreign Office is now involved in the lengthy negotiations.

"I think the slow progress is just down to the capacity of the Greek authorities to deal with the identification and then the legal processes involved."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office in London said: "The identification process is under way but we cannot speculateabout how long that will take. It is a step-by-step technical process and we are waiting for it to be finalised for formal identification.

"We are in contact with the family and will keep them informed when there is an update. We fully appreciate that it is an awful situation for people to be in. In my experience it's not always a quick process, just because it depends on so many different factors."