Note: This article has been updated several times

When searching for a twelve-year-old girl from Freudenberg, South Westphalia, who has been missing since Saturday evening, emergency services discovered a female body. It is still unclear whether this is the missing twelve-year-old, the Siegen police reported on Sunday. The search was temporarily suspended after the find.

The body was found in a forest above Freudenberg-Hohenhain.

The location is in the area of ​​a tunnel. The "Siegener Zeitung" had previously reported on it. The tunnel is about 400 meters long, a former railway tunnel, which is now used as a cycle path. It is near the street where the 12-year-old was last seen on Saturday night.

Police officers took over the on-site investigation. The site was cordoned off over a wide area. Further information could not be given at first, it said.

Police and rescue workers have been looking for the girl since Saturday with a large contingent. According to the police, the child was last seen around 5.30 p.m. when he started walking home after visiting a friend. The shortest way leads through a forest, said a spokeswoman. Freudenberg is located on the state border with Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs to the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein.

The search had already begun in the evening. Firefighters and police forces were deployed. Area search dogs and "mantrailer" dogs specializing in the search for people were also present. A helicopter with a thermal imaging camera also flew over the area during the night.

The search went through the night. On Sunday morning, the forces of a hundred of the Cologne riot police were added. "We are looking extensively with extremely strong forces," said the spokeswoman on Sunday afternoon. In the meantime, the police have also published a photo of the child, but the corresponding page in the NRW police search portal has now been taken offline.

There is no evidence that a family dispute caused the girl to run away, the spokeswoman said. "It's just a normal family."

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