AUGUSTA — Police say it could take several days to identify a body they discovered Thursday afternoon on Weeks Mills Road.

“We have been told this may continue to take several more days,” Deputy Chief Kevin Lully said in an email Friday night.

Augusta police found the body during a missing persons investigation.

“Detectives from the Augusta Police Department were following up leads on a missing person case and during the course of the investigation detectives located an unidentified body,” the department said in a statement sent about 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

The Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit van was briefly on the scene, which is close to the intersection with North Belfast Avenue, also called Route 3, in the northeast section of the city.

The area is heavily wooded, and yellow tape cordoned off a section of the forest close to the road.

A trooper at the scene Thursday night said he had no information about the body and would not say whether it was an adult or a child.