KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — The body of a man who allegedly decapitated a two-year-old girl in a brutal murder here on Thursday has been fished from the Klang River where he was earlier feared drowned.

English language daily The Star reported Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department ‎assistant director Azizan Ismail as confirming that the body was found at 4pm in the Klang River near the Sunway toll plaza of Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP).

Azizan was also quoted as saying that police have identified the body as belonging to the suspect.

The decapitated body of the girl, Siti Soffea Emelda, was found beside the Klang river along Jalan Hishammuddin on Thursday night.

Her head was severed and found near her body, reports said.

In a statement issued later in the evening, the city Criminal Investigation Department chief Senior Asst Comm Gan Kong Meng said a police patrol car in Bandar Sunway was alerted by passers-by to a body floating in the Klang River at about 2.30pm today.

“With the help of the Fire and Rescue Department, we managed to recover the body from the river at about 3pm nearby Taylor’s University,” he said.

Gan added that the body, found wearing a red checked shirt, blue pants and shoeless, matched the description of the suspect given by witnesses although no personal identification documents were on the corpse.

“We believe that this case is solved with the recovery of the suspect’s body. The body will be sent to Kuala Lumpur Hospital for a post-mortem,” he said.

But Gan said police were still working to verify the identity of the suspect by his fingerprints and to find the motive behind the brutal murder.

Siti Soffea Emelda’s decapitated body was found beside the Klang river along Jalan Hishammuddinon Thursday night.

CCTV footage showed the two year old was abducted at the Kota Raya shopping complex at about 3pm on the same day.

Her head was severed and found near her body, reports said.

At about 9pm, witnesses claimed they saw a man carrying Siti Soffea towards the bank of the Klang River and promptly alerted the police.

When the police arrived, the suspect tried to escape by jumping into the river, where he is believed to have drowned.