British police quiz man over missing girl, five

London: British police investigating the disappearance of a five-year-old girl in Wales continued their search on Wednesday after detaining a local man.

April Jones was last seen getting into a vehicle on Monday evening. She had been playing on her bicycle with a friend near her home in the market town of Machynlleth.

Hundreds of volunteers have turned out to help police search the surrounding countryside, but so far they have found no trace of the girl.

Police specialist teams with dogs were later joined by Coastguard and Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) personnel who combed the banks of Dyfi estuary.

Officers were also searching vehicles and examining CCTV footage.

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Detective Superintendent Reg Bevan of Dyfed Powys Police said the 46-year-old man was still in custody, waiting to be questioned further by detectives.

According to media reports, officers have said that he is a local man and that they have recovered a vehicle belonging to him similar to the description children gave.

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On Tuesday, Bevan spoke of the "delicate and time-consuming" process of speaking to other children who were with April around the time she disappeared to put together a fuller account of what had happened.

He read out a statement from April's family at a press conference.

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"Please, please if you have our little girl, let her come home to us," it read.

Thousands of people have joined one of many Facebook groups dedicated to the search and it has become one of the top trending topics on Twitter.