A nine-year-old girl, who had come to visit her maternal uncle’s home in north Calcutta with her parents and two elder sisters, was found dead with her throat slit in a building near the uncle’s home early on Thursday.

Police said she had gone missing a few hours before.

Residents of the area alleged that the girl, whose body was found on the staircase landing of the three-storeyed building, had been sexually assaulted and murdered.

The police said they would comment on the cause of death and the nature of the injuries after the post-mortem. The girl, who turned nine on February 1, was last seen playing outside her uncle’s home around 8.30pm, the police have found.

The victim and her two teenage sisters and parents had come to visit the relative’s home on Wednesday evening. The mother works as domestic help and the father is a labourer.

When the family realised that the child had gone missing, they started looking for her. Then they went to the local police station to register a missing diary.

Around 6am on Thursday, one of the neighbours spotted the girl’s body on the first-floor landing of the staircase of a building, just two buildings away from the victim’s maternal uncle’s home. The building can be accessed by anyone.

Residents said the first floor did not have any occupants.