The Lord Lucan murder inquiry is being reopened almost 30 years after the aristocrat vanished in Sussex.

Detectives plan to use new techniques such as DNA profiling using samples from his immediate family to solve the riddle.

The disappearance of Lord Lucan, following the discovery of the murdered body of his nanny Sandra Rivett at his London home, sparked one of the county's biggest ever sea and land manhunts after his car was found abandoned at Newhaven.

No body has ever been found which could be officially identified as Lord Lucan's, although there have been almost yearly reports of the peer being sighted somewhere in the world.

Scotland Yard, which headed the initial murder investigation, has never officially closed its files on the case.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Crime Directorate responsible for reviewing unsolved cases, will review the evidence.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "The review is being carried out to ensure all the potential lines of inquiry have been followed and pursued, and to see if any new ones come up as a result of DNA techniques.

"An image of how the aristocrat might look today has been created but there are no plans to release it."

Lord Lucan was officially declared dead by the High Court in 1999.

Retired Chief Inspector Jim Marshall, who in November 1974 as head of Sussex CID led the Sussex part of the hunt for Lord Lucan, welcomed the decision by Scotland Yard to reopen the case.

The former police chief and Hove councillor said: "It will end speculation should a body or person be found that is thought to be Lord Lucan.

"A thorough search of the Sussex Downs and Newhaven was made at the time, including searches of the harbour by police divers. I believe a body would have been found by now as they are usually eventually found on land, and the sea usually gives up its dead."