The body was found around one-and-a-half kilometres from where Ms Bulley was last seen walking her dog in St Michael’s on Wyre after dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school on the morning of January 27.

A police spokesman said officers were called to reports of a body in the river close to Rawcliffe Road at around 11.35am yesterday.

“An underwater search team and specialist officers have subsequently attended the scene, entered the water and have sadly recovered a body,” a statement said.

“No formal identification has yet been carried out, so we are unable to say whether this is Nicola Bulley at this time.

“Procedures to identify the body are ongoing.

“We are currently treating the death as unexplained.

“Nicola’s family have been informed of developments and our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times. We ask that their privacy is respected.”

A man and a woman walking their dog discovered the body and called police, the PA news agency understands.

The body was found on an unremarkable stretch of the river, just past a slight bend, a kilometre or so outside the village, close to where a tree had fallen on its side, half in and half outside the water, with branches and undergrowth partially submerged.

Police had earlier erected a tent and cordoned off the lane while police divers were called in, but the road was reopened around three hours later once the body was recovered by officers.

The area attracted press interest and members of the public, including one woman who told reporters she was a clairvoyant and had “picked up” an area of the river on Saturday night.

The police diving team could be seen conducting the search while a police drone and helicopter flew above.

The investigation into Ms Bulley’s disappearance has attracted widespread speculation as well as criticism of the police response.

The force came under fire after making Ms Bulley’s struggles with alcohol and peri-menopause public three weeks after she vanished.

In a press conference on Wednesday, they revealed the mother-of-two was classed as a “high-risk” missing person immediately after her partner Paul Ansell reported her disappearance, “based on a number of specific vulnerabilities”. 

They later added in a statement that Ms Bulley, from Inskip in Lancashire, had stopped taking her HRT medication.

A public backlash and interventions from the British government and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper followed, with Lancashire Constabulary confirming that a date had been set for an internal review into the investigation by Chief Superintendent Pauline Stables.