Helicopters, gendarmes and police, dogs and hundreds of people have been searching for two days without result for Émile, the two and a half year old boy who disappeared last Saturday afternoon while playing in the garden of his grandparents’ house in Le Vernet, a town of barely a hundred inhabitants in Haute Provence, in the south of France.
The authorities have suspended the hunt to find him and have activated a more “specific and selective” search device. “The searches will continue but we will adapt the device,” said the department’s prosecutor, Marc Chappuis.
“We will stop the raids to deploy specialized means in the search for traces and clues”, since the searches already carried out have not allowed the child to be located in the initial perimeter of five kilometers around the district where he disappeared.
Émile lost track last Saturday afternoon while playing in the garden of his grandparents’ house, where he spent his holidays. He was wearing a yellow shirt and white pants. There are few clues: two witnesses saw him going down the street and a telephone line has been opened in case anyone can provide details that help find him. 500 calls have been received, but there has been no success.
“We do not lose hope,” said the prosecutor, who recalled that the search system carried out so far should have allowed him to be found in the aforementioned radius. If he got lost, the little one has already been alone for three nights and two days. It is an area rugged and mountainous where small streams also pass.