Desperate hunt for French boy after he vanished while on holiday

Race against time to find missing Emile: Desperate hunt for two-year-old French boy two days after he vanished while on holiday with his grandparents in Alpine village

• The family were getting ready to leave the house when Émile vanished Saturday
• Unable to find him, the initial search area for the boy has now been extended

French police have undertaken an extensive hunt for a two-year-old boy who went missing over the weekend while on holiday with his grandparents.

Émile was playing in the garden of his grandparents’ home in the hamlet of Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence on Saturday afternoon when he vanished.

The family was getting ready to leave the house they were staying in when Émile took advantage of the inattention, officials said. His grandparents came to put him in the car and found that he had gone.

The grandparents then alerted the authorities of Émile’s disappearance at around 5.15pm [4.15pm BST], at which point family members, police, emergency service workers, and local villagers started the search for the boy.

Still unable to find him, the initial 5km search area for the Émile has today been extended with a helicopter, thermic camera drones, and sniffer dogs all brought in to help.

Émile was playing in the garden of his grandparents’ home in the hamlet of Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence on Saturday afternoon when he vanished

A group of gendarmes goes on a hunt in search of little Emile. French police are engaged in an extensive air and land search for the missing two-year-old boy

Volunteers take part in a search operation for two-and-a-half-year-old Emile who is reported missing for two days

François Balique, the mayor of Le Vernet, told French television that the boy was a good walker for his age.

‘It’s a small village with 20 or so houses … we see everything. He could have gone some distance and perhaps got lost or was hiding,’ he said

The area around Le Vernet is surrounded by forest is popular with hikers.

Émile, who is originally from Bouches-du-Rhône near Marseille, was spotted by two people as he left his grandparents’ home. However, they then said they ‘lost sight of him’.

Police have so far carried out a search of all houses in the village, and have called upon anyone with any information to come forward.

Releasing a photo and description of a child to social media and broadcasters, officials said he had brown eyes, blond hair, and is 90cm (almost 3ft) tall.

They said he was wearing a yellow top, white shorts with a green pattern, and hiking shoes at the time of his disappearance.

Police have so far ruled out any suggestion that he was abducted. 

Emile was last seen playing in the garden at his grandparents’ house on July 8 as people now search for him

French gendarmes take part in a search operation for two-and-a-half-year-old Emile who is reported missing since Saturday

Volunteers in the French southern Alps village of Le Vernet look for Emile who was last seen playing in the garden at his grandparents’ house

Police have so far carried out a search of all houses in the village, and have called upon anyone with any information to come forward

The initial 5km search area for the Émile has today been extended with a helicopter, thermic camera drones, and sniffer dogs all brought in to help

‘The grid is quite small given the motor skills of this young boy and the topography’, David Corona, a negotiator and profiler, and former Gendarmerie told BFMTV.

Mr Corona said the child’s age was ‘both an advantage and a disadvantage’.

‘He is two and a half years old so he won’t be able to go very far on his own. The problem is that he has poor motor skills so if he falls in a place where he has trouble getting out, he is going to have trouble finding his way back.’ 

Laure Westphal, a psychologist and associate researcher at the Sciences Po university also told BFMTV that it was likely that Émile could have ventured further than initially expected. 

‘A child of this age is in search of autonomy even if he knows he is dependent on the adult. This is the age when he begins to say no’, Ms Westphal said.

A group of gendarmes are looking for little two-year-old Emile in a steep area just outside Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence

French gendarmes are briefed before taking part in a search operation for two-and-a-half-year-old Emile

A French gendarme takes part in a search operation for two-and-a-half-year-old Emile who is reported missing for two days

Volunteers are looking for Émile who was playing in the garden of his grandparents’ house in a hamlet just outside Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence between Grenoble and Nice when he vanished

French police are engaged in an extensive air and land search for a missing two-year-old boy who disappeared from a village in the south of the country at the weekend

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