ZELIENOPLE — Police today will not resume a search for a possible body in the Connoquenessing Creek, said Chief Jim Miller of the borough police.

Emergency officials from several area volunteer fire departments spent about four hours scouring the creek Thursday afternoon following a report of a possible body floating in the creek.

Zelienople Assistant Fire Chief Scott Garing said the search was called off around 5 p.m.

They are done looking “unless there’s some other reason to suspect there would be someone in there,” Garing said.

Miller said at this point they still hold a witness’ account of the situation as credible.

Zelienople police Sgt. Chuck Carlson said an unidentified U.S. Postal Service worker was eating lunch in the pavilion at Connoquenessing Creek Park on Halstead Boulevard Thursday 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 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.

Besides searchers who manned motor-powered rafts, the effort included volunteer firefighters who monitored the creek from bridges in Butler and Beaver counties.

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.

“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,” Miller said.

The chief said this is the first case he knows of about a body being in the creek.

The river was flowing at a faster rate than normal Thursday. The area has received above-average rainfall for the past month.

Miller said he received an alert when the water level had risen to 5 feet at about 3:30 a.m. Thursday.

“It’s never that high,” he said of the creek.

Zelienople Fire Chief Rob Reeb said emergency personnel covered at least 2½ miles of the creek during the search.

Police in Ellwood City were notified about the situation.

Reeb said although the body was described as floating toward the center of the river, it’s possible that it sank in deeper water.

“Usually (bodies) don’t sink immediately,” Reeb said. “But all it takes is something underwater to hook them and drag them underwater.”

The Beaver Falls Fire Department was called in to assist, and emergency officials in Lawrence County also were notified to be on the lookout for the body. Rescue personnel were stationed by the river bank off Route 588, past the Zelienople Municipal Airport.

More emergency personnel were stationed at the bridge on Halstead Boulevard in Zelienople.

Miller said a check with police in the county showed there are no reports of anyone missing in the county.