A huge search has been launched for an mute six-year-old boy who vanished after his parents took their eyes off him for just three minutes.
Little Arian Arnold went missing while playing in his garden in the small town of Elm, near Bremervoerde, in the northern state of Lower Saxony, on Monday evening. His terrified parents alerted local police just minutes after noticing his disappearance.
Authorities have since launched a major search for the boy, deploying an army Tornado jet, sniffer dogs, drones, a sonar boat and several divers for the search.
The autistic six-year-old, who is nonverbal, had only recently starting playing in the garden – where a trampoline and football goal post had been erected for him – by himself and would usually come back into the house on his own accord.
But when he disappeared, his parents ‘quickly recognised the seriousness of the situation’ and called the fire department and police, which said the search for the boy was ‘particularly difficult’ due to him neither speaking nor responding to people.
‘Arian can hardly articulate himself. We are looking for a boy who would not contact us even when we are near him. It’s possible he’ll still be out next night. The situation is dramatic,’ the police chief told German tabloid Bild.
Little Arian Arnold (pictured), 6, went missing while playing in his garden in Elm, in the northern state of Lower Saxony, on Monday evening
The Bundeswehr, the German military, has joined the frantic search yesterday when it sent one of its Tornado fighter jets to scan the area using a thermal imaging camera
More than 400 people are participating in the search, combing the wooded, swampy area around Arian’s home foot by foot
The Bundeswehr, the German military, has joined the frantic search yesterday when it sent one of its Tornado fighter jets to scan the area using a thermal imaging camera.
More than 400 people are participating in the search, combing the wooded, swampy area around Arian’s home foot by foot in a human chain.
They have searched fields, hedges and barns until late the last two nights – to no avail.
Hope is dwindling that the boy will be found alive, as the current cold weather in Lower Saxony makes it ‘difficult to survive in the forest at minus two degrees,’ a volunteer in the search said.
The temperatures in the region dropped below freezing on the night when Arian went missing and forecasts predict further cold weather after it hit around minus two degrees last night.
The fire department called this ‘critical’ and confirmed that the temperatures were ‘just below freezing point’.
His parents’ house in Elm sits right next to rapeseed fields and a large forest, which helpers have combed through since Monday night.
In the nearby River Oste, divers and a sonar boat have been scanning the water for Arian, who was wearing an orange jumper, black sweatpants with a dragon pattern and socks when he disappeared around 7.30pm on Monday.
Police asked residents to check their gardens, outbuildings and private security cameras in the hopes of locating the boy, as he ‘could also be in a shed or similar hiding place’.
‘The search measures have not yet been completed, we may have to search the areas we have already searched several times,’ the police spokesman Heiner van der Werp said.
Police and firefighters comb a field in the search for missing six-year-old Arian in Lower Saxony, Germany
Numerous emergency vehicles are parked along a road in the town of Elm, Lower Saxony, as hundreds of police officers and firefighters are desperately trying to locate the boy
Emergency services with a sniffer dog run along a dirt track in Elm, Lower Saxony, in the frantic search for Arian
He added: ‘We will continue to search piece by piece next night. The helpers are turning over every stone to find Arian.’
The spokesman said police was doing everything they can do find the boy, while they are still trying to establish how he could disappear so quickly after he had just learned to open locked doors.
‘Unfortunately, we currently have no clues as to where the boy could be,’ police said at a press conference today.
A young woman who lives in Arian’s neighbourhood told Bild: ‘Everyone who lives here lives in harmony with one another. But you have to say that everyone tends to live on their own and in seclusion. I just hope he shows up quickly.’
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