THIS is the eerie moment a reporter apparently steps on the body of a missing girl while filming at the scene of her disappearance.

Lenildo Frazão was standing in Mearim River in Bacabal, north-eastern Brazil, where the 13-year-old was last seen.

He was demonstrating the depth of the water, and the spot where the child had been swimming.

Lenildo was wading right into the middle of the river, with water up to his chest, when he suddenly flinched.

He immediately jumped up and away from the spot, and let out a gasp.

The reporter had felt something brushing against him beneath the surface.

He quickly made his way to shallower water, looking back with concern.

Visibly shaken, he could be heard telling his team: “I think there’s something down here at the bottom of the water.”

He then stepped back, saying: “No, I’m not going, I’m scared.

“It looked like an arm – could it be her?

“But it might be a fish too, I don’t know.”

After his report, firefighters resumed the search for the victim on the morning of June 30, with the support of divers.

The schoolgirl’s body was found at the exact spot where Lenildo had been filming.

However, it could not be confirmed that it was her body he felt when presenting his report.

The victim, named only as Raíssa, drowned while cooling off with friends in the river.

During his report, Lenildo noted that the current was strong and the depth uneven, with “holes” in the riverbed.

A post-mortem showed no signs of physical trauma, and the cause of death was recorded as accidental drowning.

Raíssa was laid to rest on the evening of June 30.