Body found in Alice Gross search

Alice Gross, 14, went missing at the end of August

Forensic offers set up a tent on the bank of the River Brent

Arnis Zalkalns, 41, has been missing since the beginning of September

THE POLICE SEARCH for a missing teenager became a murder inquiry after a body was found in a West London canal.

The body, widely reported as belonging to 14-year-old Alice Gross, was discovered weighed down in the bed of the River Brent by officers feeling along with their fingertips.

Police said “significant efforts” had been made to try and conceal the body.

Metropolitan Police commander Graham McNulty said a formal identification had not yet been made but that the news was “devastating for everyone involved in the search for Alice”.

He continued: “This is now a murder investigation and I need the public’s help to find whoever is responsible.

“I would urge anyone who may know something to come forward. Even if you have not yet spoken out it is not too late to tell us what you know.”

The River Brent is a tributary of London’s River Thames and is not far from the point where Alice was last seen in CCTV footage on 28 August.

Latvian national Arnis Zalkalns, 41, is the prime suspect in her disappearance. He has a previous conviction for murder from 1998 and has not been since he was last at his Ealing home nearly a month ago.