Police divers looking for a missing Irish football fan in central Poland on Wednesday said they had found a man’s body in a waterway near where he was last seen.

“I can’t deny it,” police spokeswoman Monika Chlebicz told Poland’s TVN24 news channel when asked if a body had been found in the river Brda, in the city of Bydgoszcz.

More than 100 officers and specialist divers were deployed to hunt for 21-year-old James Nolan, after he had not been seen for more than 48 hours.

Police said Nolan’s parents were travelling to Bydgoszcz.

He 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.

On Wednesday, police scuba divers had intensified their searches of the river and a canal which cut through the city centre. The waterways are lined with bars and restaurants popular with Irish fans.

James Nolan, was reported missing 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 the city’s old town square.

Police had confirmed the group had been heavily drinking and that Nolan’s passport was left in the hotel on the outskirts of the city where he was staying.

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.