The search for a missing 21-year-old woman is continuing, with teams searching a river near to where she was last seen as well as surrounding property.
Chloe Mitchell was last seen on CCTV in the early hours of June 3rd in Ballymena town centre.
A 26-year-old man was arrested in Lurgan, Co Armagh and police say he is co-operating with inquiries.
PSNI Chief Inspector Arnie O’Neill said Ms Mitchell was last seen heading in the direction of James Street, wearing a green and black North Face-style jacket, a white T-shirt, leggings and Nike trainers.
Community Search and Rescue as well as K9 Search and Rescue began the search for Ms Mitchell around the River Braid on June 8th.
Police directed the search and rescue team to a section of the river in the Castle Gardens area of Ballymena that included an embankment with an 18-feet drop.
Several Community Rescue Service vehicles including a specialist lowland search unit attended the site at the River Braid.
Darren Harper, district commander for Community Rescue Service, said search efforts on Thursday had allowed them to eliminate some areas.
“Today’s search is going to be just a continuation on from the search areas yesterday, just eliminating the areas that Chloe may not be in,” he said.
Mr Harper said his team was well-equipped to deal with the difficulties in searching the steep embankment of the River Braid.
“We do have a tech team that will be able to get down there, so it’s not going to be so much of a challenge,” he said.
“It’s just because of the low light yesterday when this search area was identified within our search strategy. It was just a lot safer for our guys to try and access it during daylight hours.”
Ground teams searched the areas around the river but also close to a property in James Street, near to Ms Mitchell’s last known whereabouts, which had been cordoned off by police.
Mr Harper maintained that the teams were still hoping to find Ms Mitchell.
“Ground teams again, we’re searching for Chloe herself. As I say we’re just systematically searching in and around the area at the minute,” he said.
Community Rescue Service regional commander Sean McCarry said the search on Friday morning would begin with around 35 people, but that that number was expected to increase throughout the day.
Police were knocking doors in the search areas around the river, asking residents if they were at home on Friday evening into Saturday morning and enquiring as to if they had CCTV at their property.
Independent councillor for Ballymena, Rodney Quigley, praised the efforts of the police and search and rescue teams, but said that people should not listen to rumours in relation to the case.
“There’s a bit of confusion at the minute, I’ve heard different reports,” he said.
“I want to stress that there’s a lot of rumours going about and for people not to be listening to the rumours. Obviously it’s a well-organised search and I feel the people just need to let search parties and the police continue with the search and investigation.”
Mr Quigley added that in his discussions with members of the local community there was very little information on what may have happened to Ms Mitchell to result in her disappearance.
“I know she was a local girl, and she’s been missing a week now, which is very concerning, but nobody seems to have seen or heard tell of her anywhere and I’ve been speaking to quite a few people,” he said.
Community groups in Ballymena had also been carrying out searches for Ms Mitchell on Thursday, including the Harryville Residents Association and Ballykeel and District Community Association.
