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. The search was temporarily suspended after the find. On Sunday evening, the Koblenz police then announced: The twelve-year-old from Freudenberg, South Westphalia, who had been missing since Saturday evening, is dead. The female body found on Sunday afternoon was the girl she was looking for. 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.

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, and the corresponding page in the NRW police search portal was taken offline after the body was found.