Missing Japan girl found dead in river

NAGANO: A girl’s body found in a river yesterday in Nagano prefecture in central Japan was identified as that of seven-year-old Rina Machida, who went missing on Saturday afternoon, police said. Firefighters found the body yesterday morning, and based on the clothes the girl was wearing, local police believed it to be Rina. Police said she may have accidentally fallen into the river because she did not sustain any major injury, and they have received no reports of suspicious activity. Rina left her grandparents’ home in Otari village at around 11.40am on Saturday, saying she would go after her mother who had left for a public hall several minutes before to prepare for a local summer festival. The public hall is about 50m away from the house and she was last seen in front of a shrine near the hall around noon on Saturday by one of the local residents.