THE HUNT FOR missing Irish teenager Nóra Quoirin has stretched into its second week today, with hundreds of people scouring the jungle in Malaysia despite it being a major Muslim holiday.
Nóra (15), who has special needs, went missing from the resort of Dusun in Seremban, not far from Kuala Lumpur last Saturday, a day after checking into the resort with her family.
They believe she was abducted, but police have classified it as a missing person case.
Nóra’s mother Meabh yesterday spoke in an emotional video released by Royal Malaysia Police, expressing gratitude from her and the teen’s father Sebastien Quoirin to those searching for their missing daughter.
Today, even as millions celebrated the Eid al-Adha festival in the Muslim-majority country, a search team almost 300 strong trekked through dense jungle near the resort in southwest Malaysia.
The search team includes helicopters, sniffer dogs and drones, but no trace of the teenager has been found so far.
Officials narrowed the search area over the weekend as they believe that Nóra cannot have strayed far from the resort, and have also been playing a recording of her mother’s voice through megaphones.
Police have also launched a new hotline number for the public to report any information about her. A Garda Liaison Officer has also been deployed to Kuala Lumpur in recent days to assist with the case.
Nóra’s family say it would be extremely unusual for the reserved youngster to have wandered off on her own.
While officially treating it as a missing person case, police say they have not ruled out other possibilities. An open window was found in the cottage where the family was staying at the resort.
A number of people have also been questioned, and police are examining fingerprints found on a window, and looking into reports that villagers heard a truck early on the morning that Nóra disappeared.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland confirmed this week it is “aware of the case and is providing consular assistance”.
With reporting from - © AFP 2019
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