Police have broken up a group of men who were trying to join the search for missing mum-of-two Nicola Bulley, according to reports. The group was apparently issued a dispersal order last night after police warned members of the public not to "take the law into their own hands".
Lancashire Police said it "will not tolerate" people committing criminal offences by breaking into empty or derelict riverside properties, reports The Mirror. Speaking from the scene on Wednesday evening, TalkTV's Oliver Whitfield-Miocic said: "The police here have just had to issue a dispersal order to a group of men believed to have travelled down from the Liverpool area.
"They wanted to go and search this abandoned house on the other side of the river where police believe Nicola Bulley had accidentally fallen in.
"All of this despite the police already having searched that area and, only 24 hours ago, the Superintendent in charge of this investigation asking people not to take the law into their own hands."
People have also been reported to be travelling to the areas to take selfies at the bench where Nicola disappeared, or to watch the search operation.
Friends have taken to social media calling for all the buildings to be searched after Ms Bulley, 45, went missing on January 27 in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Superintendent Sally Riley said: "There are some properties along the riverside which are empty or derelict. Whilst it may be well intentioned that people think that that could be a line of inquiry, I would ask them to desist from doing that.
"In some cases it may be criminal if they are breaking in and causing damage or committing a burglary." She said officers have searched derelict riverside properties with the permission of owners.
"Because there is no criminal element yet identified, and we don't expect there to be in this inquiry, then we're not starting to go into houses because that's not where the inquiry is leading us," she added.
The area's parish council chairman Giles Phillips said: "It would be helpful if people could let the authorities do their jobs. We don't want anyone to hinder the investigation. This is not a spectator sport.
"Most of the area is private land. The public access is very minimal and can't absorb the numbers of people who are coming every day. They aren't searching for somebody. They are watching someone else search for somebody."
Nicola's friend Heather Gibbons said that while the "turnout for the search" had been "amazing... we have noticed it does feel like some people have come to maybe use it as more like a tourist spot".
"The truth is if we look at it factually, no-one knows [what has happened] until we have some evidence," she said. "I know that the family are massively appreciative of all the police have done [and] we feel we have got the best of the best on that water. Hopefully it will be a completion, one way or the other, and if they find nothing, then maybe it's time to start looking down other avenues."
