AlQa'dah 19, 1433, Oct 5, 2012, SPA -- British police on Friday arrested a man on suspicion of murdering a missing 5-year-old girl whose disappearance shocked the nation and sparked a huge public search to find her, according to dpa. Police said Mark Bridger, 46, who was detained Tuesday, was being held on suspicion of the murder of April Jones, from the small town of Machynlleth, in Wales. The news followed the girl's disappearance Monday, while she was playing outside her home with friends, who are reported to have included some of the suspect's children. The local community of around 2,000 people - and many from the region - rallied behind the search for the girl in the rugged and mountainous terrain of Wales, in the south-west of Britain in one of the biggest police search operation in history. Bridger was known to the young girl's family, according to reports. Playmates of the girl told police they had seen her “voluntary" getting into a vehicle on Monday evening. Police superintendent Ian John Friday acknowledged that volunteer searchers had played a "vital part" in the hunt so far.
