A NEW FOREST pensioner has died after falling into his garden pond.

William Grunbaum, 77, of Northover Road, Pennington, is thought to have been cleaning out the pond when he toppled over.

The accident is believed to have happened on Tuesday lunchtime.

Mr Grunbaum's wife, Jean, was visiting relatives on the Isle of Wight and the alarm was not raised until shortly after 9pm.

A Hampshire police spokesman said: "A neighbour became concerned after Mr Grunbaum failed to answer the door. Police were called to the house after his body was found floating in the pond."

His family made a formal identification last night, and a postmortem examination would be carried out later today.

At this stage police were treating his death as an accident.