(VNF) - A 9-year-old Vietnamese girl who had been missing since Friday (Mar. 24^th) was found dead on Sunday (Mar. 26^th) in a field near a drainage ditch in Abiko, Chiba Prefecture, Japanese police said.

Japanese police investigate the site where the girl's body was found. (Photo: Nihon News)

The naked body of the girl, a third grade elementary school student, was found at around 6:45 a.m. (local time) by a man who had come to fish in the Tone River nearby, Japan Times reported.

No clothes or other items that could be her belongings have been found in the area so far, the police said.

The girl did not show up at school on Friday morning. According to the police, a number of people living in her neighborhood had reported seeing a girl resembling the victim.

The site where she was found is about 10 kilometers from the school.

Police have identified her as Le Thi Nhat Linh, a Vietnamese national, third-year elementary school student from Matsudo City, according to local media.

She was described as 130 cm tall and wearing pink pants and a gray hooded jacket when she left home with a red school backpack.

Due to overgrown weeds, it is hard for any passerby to see the area where the body was found.

“At night, it gets really dark because there is no light,” Japan Times quoted a man who was farming near the crime scene as telling the police. “I’m worried such a thing happened here,” he said.

The case is being treated as a criminal incident, although the police have yet to determine the cause of death.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Japan told Vietnam News Agency on late March 26^th that it talked to Linh’s father Le Anh Hao, who came to Abiko’s police station and identified the girl as his daughter.

The Embassy requested Japanese authorised agencies to promptly investigate the case. It also assisted the victim’s family in completing procedures and taking her body to Vietnam.

The Embassy said it has closely followed the case and asked authoriesd agencies to handle the case in accordance with the law./.

Compiled by VNF