A body has been recovered from the River Dee in Aberdeen close to where two sisters went missing in early January.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32 and originally from Hungary, were last seen on CCTV near the Dee at Aberdeen harbour early in the morning on Tuesday 7 January, walking towards a path along the river.
The police have not yet confirmed the identity of the person found on Friday and have not yet linked the discovery to their search for the women.
In a statement, the force said: “We were made aware of the body of a person seen in the River Dee near Queen Elizabeth Bridge in Aberdeen around 07:55 on Friday. The body has been recovered from the water and inquiries are ongoing.”
Police Scotland deployed divers, cadaver dogs and helicopters in the search for the women, who were part of triplets. Officers said they found no evidence of foul play and suspected the women had gone into the river.
The sisters moved to Aberdeen about 10 years ago and were said by their older brother, Jozsef, who lives in Budapest, to have been saving money to buy a flat in the city. He told the BBC their other triplet sister, Edit, had spoken to the women by video call on New Year’s Eve, and had found them happy and cheerful.
It was unclear whether any of the family had been to Aberdeen since the women went missing.
The sisters rented a flat in a well-maintained block north of the Bon Accord shopping centre, where one of the women reportedly worked.
The police said they had first been alerted to their disappearance by their landlady, who received a text message from Henrietta’s mobile phone at 2.12am on 7 January that indicated the sisters would not be returning to the flat. The phone was then cut off and has not been active since.
CCTV footage recovered by the police showed that the sisters had previously visited the path along the river that they are believed to have taken that morning, at 2.50pm the previous day.
CCTV from nearly 12 hours later, at 2.12am on 7 January, showed them walking from Market Street, past the container ships in Aberdeen harbour and across Victoria Bridge, which crosses the Dee where the river enters the harbour.
The police believe they then turned right along the path, which skirts a series of industrial units and garages, westwards towards Aberdeen boat club, where they vanished. The area has since been repeatedly searched by specialist teams including marine divers and police dogs.