Investigators in London have found remains believed to be those of a little girl who was lost in a river.
The body of a girl believed to be seven-year-old London girl who was swept away by the River Thames has been found, three days after a massive search began in the storm-swollen river amid a gruelling heatwave.
London police and firefighters located the boy’s remains in the river on Sunday around 1 p.m. in the area of Perth and University Drives, near the Western University campus, police said.
“The remains are believed to be related to the ongoing missing person investigation” from Aug. 1, police said, without being more specific.
Authorities had said only that a child under the age of 10 entered the river Thursday afternoon, east of the Adelaide Street North bridge in the Kipps Lane area, and disappeared into the water, prompting a massive search of the river system that extended far from that location.
The London Free Press newspaper has identified the missing girl as seven-year-old Anna Bielli, whose mother told the paper of her desperate attempts to save her daughter when she disappeared in the fast-moving river during an outing to the park with her two younger brothers last week.
An 11-year-old boy, who was fishing in the river, also described how he tried to save the girl by holding out a stick to her.
An impromptu memorial service for the Northbrae Public School student was held on Sunday on the walkway that runs alongside the Adelaide Street North Bridge, near where she went into the water, with balloons and stuffed animals placed along the bridge railing.
