SEARCH and rescue dogs yesterday failed to find any trace of the body of the person whose feet were washed up on the banks of the River Severn last weekend.

Police in Caldicot say they are now confident the remains are not on the banks of the river near the area where the feet were washed up last week.

The remains of human feet were found in a pair of blue and white Diadora trainers, believed to be size seven or eight, on Saturday evening.

The first shoe was found by a local fisherman who contacted police who later found the other trainer. The trainers was only sold by ten outlets in the UK.

Yesterday three dogs and their handlers from the Search and Rescue Dog Association searched the banks of the river between Sudbrook and the second Severn bridge.

Inspector David Moses, from Caldicot, said: "We have carried out a search between Sudbrook and the Second Severn Crossing, and the results were negative.

"We are very grateful to SARDA who are a voluntary group and gave up their time for free on a Good Friday to help us out. They did an excellent job as they have done for us in the past.

"We are now satisfied that the remains of the body are not on the banks. As well as the dogs, we have had police officers doing a line search, called out the force helicopter and had officers on the bridge using binoculars and have not found anything."

Police have been able to narrow their search through missing persons' records to the first six months of 2001.

Inspector Moses said: "The latest information we have had from the pathologist is that the foot has been in the water for in the region of one year.

"This combined with the information we have about the trainers means we are looking for someone who went missing between January and the summer of 2001."

A sample of one of the feet has been sent to a laboratory for DNA testing although the results of the profiling are not expected to be known for some time.