PARENTS of a six-year- old girl feared they would never see their daughter again when she went missing for almost five hours.

The youngster, who can- not be named for legal rea- sons, went out on her bike to play with her older brother at about 6.30pm on Wednesday.

But her brother returned to the family home in Tonge Moor 20 minutes later with- out her.

Her parents immediately launched a frantic search, knocking on doors, but she was nowhere to be found.

The girl’s mum said: “I thought I was never going to see her again. It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.

“I was distraught. I didn’t know what to think. I just didn’t have a clue what was happening and I felt physi- cally sick.”

Police were called and a massive search and rescue operation was launched across Bolton to find the missing girl. The police hel- icopter flew overhead as Greater Manchester Pol- ice’s centrally-based search experts were called in to oversee the operation.

Bolton Mountain Rescue also joined the search, using rescue dogs and high- tech mapping equipment. The girl’s family started an appeal on social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and Blackberry Messenger, and news of her disappearance spread like wildfire as hundreds of people repeated the appeal. By 10pm, dozens of neighbours were in the streets looking for the girl as her description and photographs were circulated on the internet. Just after 11pm, the 32- year-old mother-of-two got the call she had been praying for — her daughter had been found.

The girl, who was unhurt but upset, had been spotted by a nurse outside The Royal Bolton Hospital.

Her mum immediately asked her friend to drive her to the hospital, where she was reunited with her daughter.

She said: “I felt so relieved. I gave her a great big cuddle. It was unbelievable the amount of support I had. I didn’t think I had many friends, but there were people helping and I didn’t even know who they were. There were two police officers in my house co- ordinating everything and they were so good. If it wasn’t for them I don’t think we would’ve found her.”

The youngster was yesterday being spoken to by specially trained detectives and being examined by experts at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester.

An 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of child abduction and sexual assault and was yesterday being held in custody for questioning.

Ch Insp John Buttress said: “I understand this incident will have caused concern within the local community but I can reassure members of the public that we believe this is an isolated incident. Police took immediate action, made a prompt arrest and inquiries are ongoing.”