A 14-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of a female was found just 500 yards away from the home of a missing teenager.

The teenager, from the Blaina Gwent area, is currently in police custody.

Formal identification has yet to take place, but the family of Lilly, 14, who had been missing since Saturday, has been informed.

Gwent Police has also referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over the matter. 

The body was discovered in the Duffryn Park area of Blaina, a former mining village near Ebbw Vale in the South Wales Valleys on Monday night, at around 10.10pm.

According to local councillors, the teenager's body was found by two young people who had gone out searching for Lilly.

Her family had put out desperate appeals and were worried sick because unusually her mobile phone had been switched off. 

Lilly's mother, Gemma Jones, put out an appeal saying she was hoping her daughter had gone to Cardiff, before pleading: 'Please bring my baby back home.'

Her aunt, Zoe Jones, wrote: '[She] went out at 6.30 and hasn't come home – very much out of character. Lilly please come home my girl, I promise you're not in any trouble … we just want you home.'

Locals had been searching for Lilly after she was last seen wearing a long black dress on the town's High Street around 6.50pm on Saturday. 

They claim the teenager's phone had been turned off around 20 minutes before she was last seen. 

A resident said she saw Lilly 'outside the kebab shop' on the night she disappeared and it 'looked initially like she was waiting for someone'.

She said: 'I told her that she looked lovely. She crossed over and walked through the church yard.'

Family members organised a search around Duffryn Park on Monday, while police used drones. Just hours later, the body was discovered around half a mile from where Lilly was last seen near a waterside walk.

The area was sealed off today with a police tent erected to preserve the crime scene.

One local resident said: 'It's a huge shock, everyone is in a state of disbelief and worry.

'Blaina is a small town so people knew the girl was missing and there were searches going on. Now this, it's a terrible thing.'

Councillor Lisa Catherine Winnett said the community was 'devastated' by the discovery. 

She said: 'My thoughts and prayers are with Lilly's family at this devastating and awful time. I hope police work promptly now to find the perpetrator.'

Lilly, 5ft 6in and of medium build, was last seen in the town wearing a long black dress and black sandals.

A police spokesperson said: 'We continue to have a significant police presence in the area and understand the concern amongst our communities at this time.

'Our enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the death and we currently have one person in police custody being questioned.

'I'm asking anyone with information to please come and speak with us, you can do this in person, or you can contact us on the usual channels.

'I'd also encourage people not to speculate online as this is a live investigation and such comments can have an impact on our ability to bring anyone, found to have committed a criminal offence, to justice.'

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, quoting 2600197059, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

This is breaking news, more follows.