The body of an 18-year-old Indian boy, who went missing since New Year's Eve, has been found in a canal near Old Trafford football stadium in the UK.

Greater Manchester specialist officers on Tuesday recovered Souvik Pal's body from the Bridgewater Canal near the football ground at around at 2 pm (local time14:00 GMT). The body was found three weeks after he went missing in Manchester.

Police said the post-mortem on the body is yet to take place.

Special trained officers have informed Souvik's family about the incident and are in regular touch with them. Police have offered condolences to the family and ruled out any suspicious circumstances in his death.  

"Our thoughts and condolences are with Souvik's family at this devastating time and our officers are doing all they can to support them," Detective Chief Inspector Colin Larkin said in a statement.

"We do not believe there are any suspicious circumstances surrounding Souvik's death and a file will be submitted to the Coroner in due course," he added.

His father, Santanu Pal, travelled from Bangalore to the UK to help police in the search for his son. Last week, Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz met Santanu in connection with the case.

"I have spoken to Mr Pal and we are all aware of these developments, the last 22 days have been so difficult for him. I want to thank the police for their continued hard work on this case, everyone has done so much," said the labour MP, BBC reported.

Souvik, a student of Manchester Metropolitan University, was last seen at the Warehouse Project in South Manchester at around 11 pm (23:00 GMT) on the night of Dec 31. His flatmate reported him missing the next morning at around 5.30 am.

Souvik had enrolled himself at the Metropolitan University located in North West England for a product design course.