DETECTIVES are still questioning a south London man on suspicion of murder after the discovery of a young girl's badly decomposed body in Northfleet.

The man, in his 50s, was arrested in Northfleet at 7am on Saturday morning. He was held for an initial 24 hours and then a Superintendents's extension was granted allowing the police to question him for a further 12 hours.

Late yesterday afternoon police applied to Medway Magistrates for a further 24-hour extension. Detectives are working on the assumption that the body is that of missing Deptford schoolgirl Hannah Williams.

The 15-year-old went missing last April after telling her mother she was going shopping. Her tarpaulin-wrapped body was found by a workman using a JCB digger at the Blue Circle cement site.

Officers had initially believed the body was that of Essex teenager Danielle Jones who went missing while on her way to school in June last year, but tests rules her out.

Police are waiting for the results of DNA testing, as other forms of identification have proved fruitless.