A seven-year-old child, reported missing since Tuesday afternoon, was found lifeless in a pond in Uluberia, Howrah, on Wednesday, police said.

The child has been identified as Riya Pramanik, a resident of Banitala in Uluberia.

The girl’s family said she went out on her bicycle after returning from school on Monday afternoon and remained untraced since.

Around 6.30am on Wednesday, her body was found floating in a pond adjacent to her house, the police said.

“She stepped out of her house with her bicycle around 3pm after returning from school. She would often go out on her bicycle and return after a short time,” said Mathur Hazra, the child’s grandfather.

The police said the family members told them that when the child did not return home after several hours, they started looking for her. Separate teams searched Uluberia for the Class II student, while others contacted her friends at the local school to determine if they were aware of her whereabouts.

“When all efforts to trace the girl proved futile, the family lodged a missing persons report with the Uluberia police station,” said a senior officer of Howrah Rural District Police.

“Officers started scanning CCTV footage from the area,” said the officer.

Amidst the search for the missing girl, officers received a call from the family members on Wednesday informing them that a body had been spotted floating in the pond.

“A team brought the body of the girl to Saratchandra Chattopadhayay Medical College and Hospital, where doctors declared her dead. The body was later sent for a post-mortem,” the officer said.

The bicycle was also recovered from the pond.

Senior officers said they were awaiting the post-mortem report to determine the cause of death.