Members of the Zelienople and Harmony volunteer fire departments prepare an inflatable raft to begin searching for a dead body reportedly seen floating in the Connoquenessing Creek Thursday afternoon.

ZELIENOPLE — Emergency officials from several volunteer fire departments were scouring the Connoquenessing Creek Thursday afternoon following a report of a possible dead body floating in the swollen creek.

Zelienople police Sgt. Chuck Carlson said a U.S. Postal Service worker was eating lunch in the pavilion at Connoquenessing Creek Park on Halstead Boulevard when she saw what she thought was the body of a dead person in the creek.

“I was sitting here, and it was floating in the middle,” the woman told Carlson. “It was a good 25 seconds I saw it.”

Carlson would not to identify the woman, who talked with police before leaving the scene.

He said officials received the call about the possible body just before 12:30 p.m.

He said the caller claimed to have seen a body floating west.

Volunteer firefighters and water rescue experts inflated several rafts and prepare for a search of the creek while the woman spoke with police and fire officials.

Police said the woman told them she saw a blue flannel shirt with shoulders and described the possible body as that of a white male floating facedown in the river.

Police Chief Jim Miller said the witness sounded credible in her report.

“The lady who saw it is a pretty credible person. When she was talking to Sgt. Carlson, he said she seemed really upset about it.”

Zelienople Fire Chief Rob Reeb said emergency personnel plan on covering at least 2.5 miles of the creek to search for the body.

Two rescue boats were still patrolling the creek late in the afternoon.

Police are checking to see if there are reports of missing people who match the body’s description, but Miller said at 3:40 p.m. that there are no reports of anyone missing in Butler County that authorities are aware of.