An individual has been arrested in connection with the disappearance of a British toddler who vanished from a supermarket in Germany nearly 40 years ago.

Katrice Lee was last seen at a NAAFI store, a supermarket for British soldiers and their families, on 28 November 1981 – near to where her father Richard, a soldier, was based.

It was the day of her second birthday, and she had been out shopping with her mother Sharon and aunt Wendy for birthday party treats.

On Monday, military police reportedly began searching a terraced house in the Moredon area of Swindon.

Someone was also arrested in connection with Katrice’s disappearance but an army spokesman would not give the gender or age of the person.

He said: “We can confirm that an arrest was made on 23 September by the Royal Military Police in connection with the disappearance of Katrice Lee in 1981.

“As this is an ongoing investigation we cannot comment further at this stage.”

It is understood that Katrice’s family have been informed of the arrest.

Last year, Katrice’s father told Sky News of his “embitterment” over past failures in the investigation into the two-year-old girl’s disappearance.

The initial investigation, led by the British military police because NAAFI was essentially British property, was botched from the start, a fact that has now been acknowledged by investigators.

A section of a river bank was excavated in 2018 as part of renewed investigations, though nothing was found.

Investigators did not reveal the specifics of why they were drawn to the small stretch of the River Alme just outside Paderborn, but released an e-fit of a man they wanted to trace.

He was seen putting a child into a green saloon car at the NAAFI on the day Katrice went missing. The same car was seen by a witness parked by a bridge next to the stretch of river they had searched.

On the day of Katrice’s disappearance, her mother realised in the checkout queue that she had forgotten crisps, leaving the child with her aunt.

When she returned in what she has estimated was less than a minute, Katrice was gone.

Both Wendy and Sharon had thought Katrice was with the other.

There was an extensive search but it was assumed that Katrice had wandered to the nearby river and drowned. An abduction was not considered likely.

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