Police searching for the body of missing schoolgirl Moira Anderson have identified five areas of interest following the search of a canal.
A full scientific examination of Monkland Canal at a site at Carnbroe, North Lanarkshire has been carried out by Police Scotland.
Detectives say the four-day operation in the 3.5-metre deep water resulted in five distinct areas of anomalies being identified by specialist teams.
Eleven-year-old Moira disappeared after leaving her grandmother's house in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, on February 23, 1957 to buy margarine from the nearby Co-op. She never returned and was reported missing later that night.
A police spokesman said: "Over the last four days, ground penetrating radar, sonar scanning and magnetometry have been used to identify anomalies within the water and silt layer of the canal.
"The conclusion of this first scoping phase has resulted in five distinct areas of anomalies being identified by specialist resources."
Among the experts who have been involved in the operation are soil forensics experts, representatives from the National Crime Agency, as well as human identification and anatomy professionals.
The second phase of the search begins on Monday, with divers from Police Scotland's Marine Unit conducting a search of the identified areas.
Police Scotland and the former Strathclyde Police worked with the Crown Office and procurator fiscal to investigate her disappearance and examine any new evidence.
This led to the site, which is 170m long and 15m wide at Monkland Canal, being identified for a search.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here