Springfield police are investigating.
SPRINGFIELD - Emergency personnel recovered the "badly decomposed" body of an unidentified male under the North End Bridge around 9 a.m. this morning, said Fire Department spokesman Dennis Leger.
At 8:14 a.m., a man named Luis Serrano, who was fishing under the bridge, reported "what he thought was a body" in the Connecticut River, Leger said. Firefighters responded and sent out a boat.
Leger said firefighters located the body and gave the address as 126 West St., near the Bassett Boat Co. on the Springfield side of the bridge.
The body was hung up on "some object that was sticking out of a bridge abutment" and it took firefighters about an hour to free it.
"It appears to have been there a long time," Leger said.
He said he had no information on a possible identity or age.
After calling in his discovery, Serrano waited for personnel to arrive and showed them where to look, Leger said.
"He was very helpful," said Leger. "It would have been like a needle in a haystack."
Springfield police are investigating.
More details will be posted on MassLive.com as they become available.