POLICE searching for a five-year-old girl seen wandering a Woodley street this morning have this evening confirmed that they have finished their main enquiries.
The youngster was seen walking along a path on Woodlands Avenue at 5am this morning. Since then Thames Valley Police have been investing the claims and conducting door-to-door enquiries.
A heavy police presence has been maintained in the town all day.
At 7pm this evening, the force released an update confirming that they are starting to wind down their search and that nothing had been found.
The force said that its officers had spoken to members of the community, including local children and their families, however no children with welfare concerns were identified.
Superintendent Kevin Brown said: “I’d like to thank everyone in the community who assisted us while we were searching for a young child today. Having carried out extensive and proportionate enquiries in the local area, we believe that it does not appear that the young child is in any danger or still outside alone.
“There have been no reports of similarly aged missing children across Berkshire today and no further reports or sightings of a child as described alone, other than those at close to 5am.
“While no foul play was ever suspected, we had a duty to work to carry out proportionate and reasonable welfare checks. These are now as complete as they can be, given the information we have.
“We are not treating the reports as malicious, indeed I’d like to thank the public who brought it to our attention.
“We treat all incidents such as these extremely seriously and would ask anyone who sees anything they are concerned about to call police immediately on 101 or 999 in an emergency.”