POLICE forensic experts continued the grim task of digging up a garden searching for the body of schoolgirl Sheila Fox who disappeared 57 years ago.

Detectives are expecting the excavation at the house in Barton Road, Farnworth, to continue for at least two more days.

Work was slightly delayed as part of the team had to go to the Moston area of Manchester to investigate a shooting at a pub.

But the dig got underway again in the afternoon and experts will continue sifting through the soil until midweek.

A police spokesman said: "We have nothing new to say at the moment. We are continuing to dig and will do so probably for the next two days."

Police began removing turf from the back garden of the semi-detached house last Tuesday.

Sheila, aged six, vanished without trace in August 1944 and it was never known what had happened to her.

But recently, a man told police as he child he had seen someone digging in the garden at midnight around the time the schoolgirl disappeared.

In what has been described as a "slow and painstaking" process, the police team are carefully sieving soil to search for any possible remains.

Sheila's last-surviving sister Rene, 69, is being kept informed of the process. The missing girl's mother died many years ago.