Search for missing two-year-old boy in France is called off in remote village

There is ‘no sign’ of a toddler who disappeared in a village in the French Alps despite hundreds of police officers and volunteers searching for him.

Émile, aged two and a half, was staying with his grandparents in their house in Le Vernet in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence when he went missing on Saturday.

Four days later, the countryside search for him was called off earlier this evening.

Local prosecutor Rémy Avon said the ‘physical search’ could go no further, adding there was ‘no sign’ of the little boy.

‘The judicial investigation into the causes of the disappearance will continue,’ he said.

‘In particular by analysing the considerable mass of information and elements collected over the past four days.’

There have been a number of theories about what really happened, including that the Émile was accidentally killed by a car or a tractor, with the driver hiding the body.

Mr Avon said the possibilities that the boy had been murdered, kidnapped, or got involved in an accident were all being look at.

‘All these theories are active, nothing has been ruled out,’ he stressed.

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