A specialist search team looking for Nicola Bulley has now ruled out the stretch of river where it is believed the missing mother-of-two fell in.

Peter Faulding, the head of Specialist Group International, which is helping police in its search of the River Wyre, confirmed on Wednesday that the area of water between the bench on the riverbank, where Ms Bulley’s phone was found, and the weir is no longer part of the search.

“We have now searched the section of the river where it is believed Nicola went in - that is from the bench to the weir - and we can rule that out now and say she is not there,” he said.

“That particular area of the river has also been searched twice by police divers,” he added. 

“You can see the water in that stretch of river is very calm and fast-flowing, and as I’ve said if she did fall in there then it’s odd she wouldn’t have been found earlier by divers.”

Mr Faulding has previously said that if his team does not find Ms Bulley in the river then he is confident she is not there, and that there may be “third-party involvement”.

As the hunt for the 45-year-old who disappeared while walking her dog in St Michael’s on Wyre in Lancashire entered its 13th day, Mr Faulding and his team would now turn its focus to the weir, just a few hundred metres downstream from where it is thought Ms Bulley may have fallen in.

He also said that today could be the final day of their search, as he and his team have “other commitments” to attend to.

SGI, which was contacted by Ms Bulley’s family to help with the search and is assisting “free of charge”, has been using specialist sonar technology in its search of the tidal river.

The high-spec sonar, operated by Mr Faulding and his team from a boat trawling along the river, can see “every stick and stone” lying on the riverbed. 

Ms Bulley was last seen at approximately 9.10am on the morning she went missing, when a witness saw her walking her dog in a field up from the spot she is believed to have fallen in the river.

Lancashire police believe she went missing in a ten-minute window shortly after this, and are appealing to specific drivers and anyone who may have information from that day to come forward.