French police searching for a two-year-old boy who went missing from his grandparents’ garden in the French Alps on Saturday have said they still have no clues as to what has happened to him.
The boy, named only as Emile, was last seen walking down the street near his grandparents’ house by two witnesses on Saturday afternoon, according to authorities.
They live in a remote mountain village with only two dozen inhabitants just outside Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence between Grenoble and Nice.
Police and gendarmes have entered every building in the settlement and some 500 volunteers have also helped with the search, looking for Emile in the forests and fields that surround the village, the local prefect’s office said on Twitter.
“At this point, we don’t have any clues allowing us to follow any particular theory (on his whereabouts),” the local public prosecutor told France Info Radio.
At the time he disappeared he was wearing white shorts and a yellow top.
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The local mayor, Francois Balique told French TV: “The family was getting ready to leave the house to go on an outing. He took advantage of this fleeting moment to leave.
“His grandparents realised he was no longer there when they went to put him in the car.”
BFM TV said authorities were using a recorded voice message by Emilie’s mother, broadcast over loudspeakers from a helicopter, in the area of the search.
