Human remains have been uncovered by a team searching a French forest for one of the "Disappeared" victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles.
Seamus Ruddy, a 32-year-old teacher from Co Down, was abducted from Paris, murdered and secretly buried by the republican paramilitary group the INLA in 1985.
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) announced on Saturday that it had made the discovery at Pont-de-l’Arche near Rouen in northern France.
Experts began a fresh search of the wooded area on Tuesday.
The commission said the process of recovering the remains would take some time.
A post-mortem examination and formal identification will then be undertaken in conjunction with the French authorities.
The family of Mr Ruddy now face a tense wait for news they have been waiting more than three decades to hear.
His sister Anne Morgan visited the search site in France on Friday, just hours before the discovery.
The ICLVR was set up during the peace process by the UK and Irish governments to recover the bodies of those murdered and secretly buried, mainly by the IRA, in the 1970s and 1980s.
There had been a number of previous searches in same forest area for Mr Ruddy, the most recent by the ICLVR in 2008.
The commission's experts, who require those with knowledge of the crimes to come forward and provide information without fear of prosecution, were confident the guidance they were acting on this time was accurate.
If the remains are those of Mr Ruddy, that will leave three of the 16 Disappeared victims still to be recovered.
The remains of Columba McVeigh, Joe Lynskey and Robert Nairac have yet to be found.
Sinn Fein's Mickey Brady, a childhood friend of Mr Ruddy, said his thoughts were with his family.
"While it is too early to say, I can only hope that they are those of Seamus Ruddy," he said of the remains found.
He said the suffering of the families of the Disappeared had "gone on too long".
"They have a fundamental right to bury their loved ones and there is an onus on those responsible to help bring this about," he said.
"Sinn Fein has consistently called for anyone with information that could lead to the retrieval of bodies in the outstanding cases to come forward to the Commission."
Ireland's deputy premier, Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald, said: "I hope the discovery of remains in France will move us ever closer to finalising the tragic search for all of the Disappeared.
"For a family to be bereaved but denied the opportunity to bury their loved one is a terrible cruelty that is hard to imagine.
"At this time, I would like to remember all of the families of the Disappeared and the suffering which they have endured.
"In particular, my thoughts are with those families who still await recovery of the remains of their loved ones.
"I want also to commend the dedicated and ceaseless humanitarian work of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains and its project team.
"I assure them and the families of the other Disappeared of my and the Government's support for their ongoing work.
"I would also like to thank the French authorities for their cooperation and great sensitivity in facilitating this search."