Body found near missing Milly's home

The body had been in the water "for some time"

Police forensic teams are carrying out tests on a body found in the River Thames a few miles downriver from where schoolgirl Amanda Dowler disappeared more than a month ago.

Surrey Police have announced it is that of a female, but are refusing to confirm or deny it is linked to Amanda's disappearance.

The discovery was made on Tuesday near a water company pumping station after a cyclist reported seeing a body from the towpath near Sunbury Lock.

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Police divers recovered the body from the murky water shortly after 2015 BST.

Appeals

A post mortem examination will be carried out overnight, though the identity of the body is unlikely to be confirmed until later on Wednesday morning.

BBC correspondent Clarence Mitchell, who is at the scene, says the area around the search remains sealed off and under police guard.

"Because the body was in the water for some time it is proving very difficult to identify," he said.

Amanda was last seen walking home to Walton Park

Amanda's parents and detectives on the case have been informed.

The 13-year-old, also known as Milly, was last seen on 21 March walking home to Walton Park from the railway station at nearby Walton-on-Thames.

After sharing a plate of chips with a friend, she phoned her father, Robert, to say she was heading home but never arrived.

Fearing their daughter had been abducted, Mr Dowler and his wife Sally made a number of appeals for her safe return.

Friends and celebrities including Pop Idol Will Young and actor Jonathan Pryce joined the appeals for information.

One, on the BBC's Crimewatch UK programme, was accompanied by a reconstruction of her journey home from school.

A massive police hunt was launched, about 50 sites searched and about 3,000 people in the Walton area spoken to during extensive house to house inquiries.

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