Body found in LA hotel water tank may be missing Canadian tourist

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A body was found in a large water tank on top of a downtown Los Angeles hotel on Tuesday which may be a 21-year-old Canadian woman who went missing under suspicious circumstances while staying there late last month, police said.

Elisa Lam, a student from Vancouver, British Columbia, who was visiting southern California on her own, was last seen at the Cecil Hotel on January 31. Local authorities had characterized her disappearance as suspicious.

A security video taken in an elevator at the hotel and released by the Los Angeles Police Department last week showed Lam acting strangely, hiding in a corner and repeatedly peering around the elevator doors into the hallway.

An Los Angeles police spokeswoman confirmed that a body had been found in one of four large water tanks on top of the Cecil Hotel early on Tuesday after a maintenance worker went up to investigate reports of low water pressure.

The spokeswoman said police detectives were on the scene, but had not yet determined whether the remains were those of the missing woman.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb, editing by Cynthia Johnston, desking by G Crosse)