Parents of missing Irish fan to confirm identity: prosecutor

(WARSAW) - Prosecutors in central Poland said Wednesday they were waiting for the parents of a missing Irish fan to identify a body with the young man's documents found in a waterway near where he was last seen.

"We are waiting for the arrival of Mr. Nolan's parents for a final confirmation of his identity," Bydgoszcz regional prosecutor Leon Bojarski told AFP on Wednesday.

He confirmed police had found identity documents and a phone belonging to 21-year-old Irish national James Nolan on the body divers recovered Wednesday from a waterway running through Bydgoszcz, a popular stop for Irish Euro 2012 fans.

Nolan was reported missing on Sunday afternoon when he failed to return to his hotel after breaking off from a group of friends during a night out watching football and drinking in a pub in Bydgoszcz city centre.

More than 100 officers and specialist divers were deployed to hunt for him after he had not been seen for more than 48 hours.

Bojarski also said there was about 300 zloty (70 euros, $90) in the wallet containing Nolan's identity documents and confirmed an autopsy was planned.

Other sources close to the investigation wishing to remain anonymous said the body bore no obvious signs of a struggle and that the case did not appear to have criminal overtones.

Police said Wednesday Nolan's parents were travelling to Bydgoszcz.

Earlier in the day, police scuba divers had stepped up searching a river and a canal which cut through Bydgoszcz city centre. The waterways are lined with bars and restaurants popular with Irish fans.

Photos of a smiling blond, blue-eyed Nolan, taken by friends on mobile phones were published on the Bydgoszcz police website and were also circulated among local taxi drivers and on the Internet.

Bydgoszcz, which has a population of 350,000, recorded four homicides in 2011, all of them the result of alcohol-related family violence, according to police.

"We've never recorded a murder of a foreign national in the city," Bydgoszcz police spokesman Maciej Daszkiewicz told AFP.

According to Daszkiewicz, no incidents of football related violence have been reported in the the Bydgoszcz region since Euro 2012 kicked off on June 8.

Thousands of Irish football fans have flooded into Poland for the competition, which kicked off on June 8 in the Polish capital Warsaw and ends on July 1.