Belgian police find child's body in river

Belgian police Tuesday found the body of a child in a river which appeared to be that of a missing four-year-old boy, a prosecutor said.

"Everything leads us to believe that it is little Younes," said prosecutor Marie-Claude Maertens at a news conference late Tuesday.

Younes Jratlou went missing on the night of October 25 when he left the family home barefoot and lightly dressed, after an argument between his parents, according to the initial investigation by prosecutors.

The body was found in the Lys river at the Belgian-French border, near a lock at Comines, which is about 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) from where the boy had disappeared, Maertens said.

The prosecutor also said the body had not been weighed down underneath the water, contrary to some earlier media reports.

The police chief in Comines, Sebastien Dauchy, said that investigators had previously searched the Lys river at the same spot but had found nothing.

"It was a boatman who saw a body mass in the water," Maertens said.

"He was wearing a sweater, underpants and trousers which matched the description given by the parents," she said.

"Now the priority is to identify (the body) with certainty."

Maertens said that confirming that it is Younes's body was essential in order to "relaunch the investigation" into his disappearance.