A rugby playing student who vanished after being thrown out of a nightclub has been found dead in a river.

Police searching for Henry Burke, 19, have pulled his body from the River Avon in Bath where 11 others have died in the last six years.

On Thursday night he was thrown out of a club for trying to break up a fight and texted his girlfriend to tell her he was drunk and he loved her.

Police were called when the second year Bath Spa student didn't come home or turn up for work as a tour guide at Bath Abbey on Friday.

Bath Spa student Henry Burke vanished minutes after texting his girlfriend to say he loved her while on a night out in the Somerset town

CCTV stills from Zero Zero nightclub show him 'leaving in a huff and puff,' according to his girlfriend, musical theatre student Emma Comley, 20.

His final text to her read: 'I'm p****d not going to lie. I love this baby'.

Just hours after she urged locals to look for him, police confirmed firefighters had found a body in the River Avon at around midday on Saturday.

It is thought to be at least the 11th death in the same stretch of water since 2009 - around half of them students on nights out.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said: 'A body has been found in the search for missing Henry Burke.

'Although formal identification has not been undertaken, we've informed Henry's family of this development.

'The body of a man was found in the River Avon in Bath by colleagues at Avon Fire & Rescue Service this morning.

'At this stage, the death is being treated as unexplained. Our enquiries are continuing.'

Geography student Henry was out with people he lived with in student halls of residence the year before when he went missing.

Police were called when the second year Geography student (pictured with a friend) didn't come home or turn up for work as a tour guide at Bath Abbey on Friday

Speaking before the body was found, Miss Comley said: 'I went out in Bristol and he went out in Bath and we were texting each other throughout the night.

'I wasn't drinking at all but he was the complete opposite.

'By midnight he was completely trashed. He was texting me through the night and he could barely type.

'He's a real soppy drunk and he was saying 'I love you so much' and 'I'm so happy with us'.

'The last message he sent me said 'I'm pissed not going to lie. I love this baby' and I think he meant he loved us.

'After that my messages to him weren't delivering. The last message I got from him was 12.04. I was getting more and more frantic.

'He goes out all the time and he is really responsible. He has never not come home. It's really out of character.

Henry Burke, 19, enjoying a road trip with his girlfriend Em Comley

Desperate: Emma Comley posted an appeal on Facebook to find her boyfriend Henry

'Apparently there was a scrap between two people just before he left and he tried to break that up.

'That's how we believe he got kicked out the club as it was misinterpreted.

'He was trying to stop it and it got misinterpreted and he left in a huff and a puff.'

His family, including dad Paul, a sales director, mum Sarah, a teacher, and younger brothers, aged 11 and 17, had come from Milton Keynes to Bath to help find him.

In 2013 an 850-yard fence was installed along a stretch of the river to improve water safety.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) report said the measure was needed on a stretch of unguarded towpath between Windsor Bridge and Green Park.

Bath Spa University contributed £5,000 to the £140,000 project, with £95,000 coming form the council and the remaining £40,000 coming from the Bath Western Riverside developer Crest.

An inquest into the death of Sammuel Amin, 18, who was found in the river in September 2014, heard nine young men had died in the river in Bath since 2009.

An unnamed man died after he was pulled from the River Avon in Bath in June this year, as well as the body found yesterday.