The Mille Lacs County Sheriff's Office is looking for three young girls who helped an injured fox that later tested positive for rabies.

The girls "treated" a fox that appeared to have been hit by a car in the area near Central Avenue S. and the Rum River in Milaca on Friday morning, the Sheriff's Office said in a news release posted on its Facebook page. The fox later tested positive for rabies.

"The three young girls may have been exposed and need to be tested," the Sheriff's Office said.

"Mille Lacs County Sheriff Brent C. Lindgren would like to remind everyone that injured animals such as the above mentioned fox can be infected with rabies and any injured animal should be avoided for this reason," the post continued.

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff at 320-983-8257 or the Minnesota Department of Health at 651-201-5414.

Skunks and bats are the wild animals that most commonly carry rabies, according to the state Health Department.

Last August, a fox that attacked two people near Lake Harriet in Minneapolis tested positive for rabies. The animal was captured and euthanized.

Karen Zamora • 612-673-4647

Twitter: @KarenAnelZamora