Police continued to scour a Coon Rapids neighborhood Thursday for signs of a man who sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl even after a witness who claimed to have spotted the suspect the night after the assault admitted to lying about it.

Anoka County sheriff's officials said Thursday afternoon that the witness told them that an account of seeing the suspect peering into a window of the home where the girl lived had been made up. The ground search effort triggered by that claim was immediately stopped after the claim was deemed to be false, authorities said.

But the investigation into the assault of the girl remains active.

"Based on the witness accounts, a massive police effort took place involving many officers," Lt. Paul Sommer wrote in a statement. "The report of the suspect returning made an already tense neighborhood even more fearful."

The person now faces charges of filing a false police report.

Officers, detectives and a helicopter were in the area Wednesday night and Thursday in search of the man after it was believed the suspect had returned to the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, authorities arrested and later released a man after determining that he is not believed to be a suspect. Coon Rapids Police Capt. Paul Ireland said the man, a transient who was living in or near a portable toilet, was picked up by police about 7 a.m. Thursday. After he was questioned for some time he was released, Ireland said.

The 6-year-old girl told police that on Tuesday a man knocked on the door at her home on the 11600 block of Unity Street. She was home with a teenage sibling who was sleeping. The girl told police that the man told her he was conducting a survey. He asked her who else was home and then told her not to wake the teen. The girl told police the man sexually assaulted her until she began to cry. Police said the girl's sibling woke up and the man fled on foot.

Ireland said Thursday that authorities have deemed the girl's report to be credible.

The suspect is described as a white man in his 40s with a light to orange-colored beard, short hair and a receding hairline. He's described as about 5-foot-8 and weighing 150 to 200 pounds. He was said to have a "scruffy appearance," police said.

Abby Simons • 612-673-4921