A MAN been arrested in connection with the unsolved murder of schoolgirl Nikki Allan 25 years ago.

Officers from Northumbria Police raided a house in the Stockton area of Teesside on Tuesday, during which the suspect was detained.

Seven-year-old Nikki was found stabbed to death in a derelict building in Sunderland after vanishing from her nearby home in 1992.

Her body was found lying in a pool of blood. She had been stabbed 37 times.

The suspect has since been released under investigation.

Nikki vanished on a Wednesday evening more than 25 years ago, after leaving her grandparents’ flat in Sunderland’s Wear Garth.

Nikki, her mum Sharon Henderson, and their family were well known at the Wear Garth flats, which have since been pulled down.

Neighbours formed search parties in a desperate bid to find the little girl.

But her body was found in the derelict Exchange building a few hundred yards away, after her shoes were spotted outside.

In 1993, George Heron, 24 at the time, stood trial for Nikki’s murder, but was cleared by a jury at Leeds Crown Court.