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The body of a child believed to be that of a seven-year-old London girl swept away in the Thames River on Thursday has been found, three days into a massive search of the storm-swollen river in London.
London police and firefighters located the remains of a child in the river in the area of Perth and University drives about 1 p.m. Sunday, London police said.
“The remains are believed to be in relation to the ongoing missing person investigation,” from Aug. 1, the police department said in an update Sunday of its investigation, without being more specific.
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Authorities have said only that a child under 10 years old entered the river last Thursday afternoon, east of the Adelaide Street North bridge, in the Kipps Lane area, and disappeared into the water, prompting the massive search of the river system that extended far from that location.
The London Free Press has identified the missing girl as seven-year-old Anna Bielli, whose mother told the newspaper about her desperate attempts to save her daughter when she disappeared into the river’s fast-flowing currents during a park outing with her two younger siblings last week. An 11-year-old boy, who’d been fishing at the river, also described how he tried to save the little girl by extending a stick to her.
Police, firefighters and specialty divers called in from other police forces all took part in the search, aided by an OPP helicopter and the use of aerial drones to overfly the river system.
Karen Fermill, the seven-year-old girl’s mother, said her three young children had been cooling off their feet in a sandy, shallow area of the river on Thursday afternoon after hours spent playing at the North London Athletic Fields near their home when she turned her back to gather up the two younger children to leave, only to find that her seven-year-old was in the river and being carried away in the current.
Police said the investigation has now been reassigned to the department’s major crimes division, which will be helping the coroner’s office.
Stay with lfpress.com for more on this breaking news story.
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