Family launch hunt for missing girl

Social network appeal started after procureur fails to start ‘kidnap’ alert for five-year-old

ANXIOUS family and friends have turned to Facebook and Twitter to try to trace a five-year-old girl who has been missing since Sunday. They launched appeals on the social network after the procureur in Clermont-Ferrand refused to launch a “kidnap” alert.

Fiona had been playing with her little sister in the busy Montjuzet park when her mother fell asleep nearby. When the mother woke she raised the alarm.

However, although police searched the park and appealed for witnesses on Monday, the "alerte enlèvement" appeal was not broadcast as the procureur said there were no witnesses to say the five-year-old had been kidnapped.

Friends and family took over the hunt themselves and launched the alert on the internet and one group printed more than 100 posters to be displayed in shop windows across the town. Some have taken the official "alerte enlèvement" logo on red background and set up their own online alerts.

Police have called for anyone who was in the park – and, in particular, anyone who took photographs - to get in touch. Fiona, has long blonde hair and was wearing a black Hello Kitty tracksuit and white T-shirt.