The search for a missing teenager took a grim turn on Tuesday morning when German police said they had discovered the body of a young woman. However, whether it belonged to 17-year-old Anneli-Marie R. was yet to be concluded, authorities said.

At a press conference in the early hours, the police also said two men, aged 39 and 61, had been arrested although they did not confirm a connection. Police said they had searched buildings in the Klipphausen district, south of the city of Meissen, in eastern Germany, on Monday, including a farm near the village of Lampersdorf.

Anneli, the daughter of a businessman, disappeared on Thursday evening after she failed to return home from walking the family dog near to Meissen. The dog was later found unscathed.

Although a sniffer dog led police to a nearby yard, officers searched the land but couldn't find the girl, the German newspaper "Sächsische Zeitung" reported. A report from German mass-circulation daily "Bild" said one man was a precious metal dealer from Dresden and the other an unemployed chef from Bavaria.

A ransom note demanding 1.2 million euros ($1.32 million) was subsequently reported to have emerged. The parents had appealed to the alleged perpetrators in a letter released by the police, writing: "The kidnappers should know that we will fulfill the stipulated demands in order to be able to have our child back in our arms soon."

Police based in Dresden said they were searching for witnesses who may have seen the girl. Prosecutor Lorenz Haase told the AFP news agency that the police were following about 20 local leads on Monday, after a police appeal over the weekend.

rc/cmk (AFP, dpa)