Police searching for missing mum-of-two Nicola Bulley have found a body in the river near to where she disappeared.

Lancashire Police said a body has been found in the River Wyre close to where Nicola Bulley went missing.

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A Lancashire Police statement said: “An underwater search team and specialist officers have subsequently attended the scene, entered the water and have sadly recovered a body.

“No formal identification has yet been carried out, so we are unable to say whether this is Nicola Bulley at this time.

“Procedures to identify the body are ongoing.

“We are currently treating the death as unexplained.

“Nicola’s family have been informed of developments and our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times. We ask that their privacy is respected.”

Earlier on Sunday (February 19) officers sealed off an area close to where the mum-of-two went missing.

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According to The Northern Echo's sister paper the Lancashire Telegraph, police drones and a helicopter could be seen hovering over the outcrop of trees and undergrowth.

Police were said to have received a call just before midday and Police sealed off Rawcliffe Road in St Michael's on Wyre.

Divers were searching the river and a road has been cordoned off in the area along the River Wyre.

The area had been been the focus of a major search operation since Ms Bulley, 45, went missing on 27 January while walking her dog.

The investigation into her disappearance has attracted widespread speculation as well as criticism of the police response.

The force came under fire after making Ms Bulley’s struggles with alcohol and peri-menopause public three weeks after she vanished.

In a press conference on Wednesday, they revealed the mother-of-two was classed as a “high-risk” missing person immediately after her partner Paul Ansell reported her disappearance, “based on a number of specific vulnerabilities”.

They later added in a statement that Ms Bulley, from Inskip in Lancashire, had stopped taking her HRT medication.

A public backlash and interventions from both the Government and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper followed, with Lancashire Police confirming a date had been set for an internal review into the investigation.

A police spokeswoman said: “A review of the investigation is diarised and will be conducted by our head of crime detective Chief Superintendent Pauline Stables.”

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