Body found in hunt for missing Swiss girl

The body of a young child was discovered today in the region where Swiss police have been looking for a five-year-old girl kidnapped in July.

Authorities in the canton (state) of St Gallen said the body was found in woods by a member of the public after animals appeared to have dug it up.

Specialists have yet to identify the body, cantonal police said.

Ylenia Lenhard disappeared in Appenzell, eastern Switzerland, on July 31.

Police have been investigating in nearby St Gallen since finding the body of suspected kidnapper Urs Hans Von Aesch, who killed himself with a gunshot to the head later that day.

Investigators have found evidence that Ylenia was almost certainly in Von Aesch’s van. They have confirmed DNA traces of Van Aesch on the girl’s bicycle helmet, backpack and scooter.

The search for the missing girl has been a major story over the last six weeks in Switzerland, mirroring the intense media speculation and public concern generated in Britain by the disappearance in May of four-year-old Madeleine McCann.