POLICE today carried out a detailed search of a 1.6-mile stretch of canal bed in a bid to find the body of a baby.

A line of officers walked through the final few feet of water in the Leeds and Liverpool Canal around the Lower Audley Street area of Blackburn.

Officers have been searching the canal since Monday night, when two witnesses reported seeing a woman throw a bundle believed to be a baby into the murky water.

Yesterday the painstaking operation to drain the canal continued until the water was low enough for divers to wade through the debris.

PC Steve Carruthers of the Lancashire and Cumbria Joint Underwater Search Team, said: "We had to wait for the level of water to go down before we could go in and search further. We dived the canal on Monday night and searched the area either side of the bridge and found nothing.

"If something was thrown in the water and sank it wouldn't have moved because of the debris at the bottom of the canal but if it had floated it could have moved a short distance down the flow of the canal."

Today police also revealed that nobody had yet reported a child missing.

Inspector Steve Howard said: "We have conducted house-to-house inquiries and some people have come forward with leads for us to follow up but as yet nobody has reported a baby missing. But that does not mean that a child has not been thrown into the water."

Police said a firm from Salford had provided the pumps to drain the canal free of charge.

Inspector Howard said: "We would also like to thank British Waterways, the fire brigade and the public for all their assistance."