Gauteng police will hold a press briefing on Thursday morning amid unconfirmed reports that a man has been arrested for the murder of Roodepoort schoolgirl Louise de Waal.
Asked to confirm the arrest, which was reported on by SABC radio news, Gauteng police spokesman Lt-Col Tshisikhawe Ndou said: "We will hold a press briefing at our provincial offices in Parktown [in Johannesburg] at 9am."
According to an unsourced SABC radio news report on Thursday morning an arrest had been made.
According to Beeld newspaper, the police had been investigating a man in the Roodepoort area after finding De Waal's school bag in a car that matched the description her friend gave to police.
Ndou earlier said a grey Toyota Hilux bakkie, matching the description of the car used to abduct the teenager on Wednesday morning, had been found abandoned at a house in Florida, Roodepoort.
Beeld reported that the man had been under investigation in the past for harassing schoolgirls in the Roodepoort area.
Police were still waiting for DNA results to confirm that a burnt body, found on a farm in Magaliesburg on Wednesday afternoon, was De Waal's.
Her family was however widely quoted in the media on Thursday as saying the 17-year-old Hoërskool Die Burger pupil's body had been identified by a belly ring and earrings.
On Wednesday morning, a bakkie pulled up alongside two girls walking on the corner of Rina and Herman streets in White Ridge around 7am.
"A man got out and ordered the teenager into the vehicle. When the girl refused, he pointed a firearm at her until she complied," Ndou said.
The other girl, Natasha Gordon, ran away and the bakkie sped off with her friend.
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