Hunt for roadside kidnap girl

ANGOULEME, France, Feb 11 (AFP) – A major police hunt was underway in western France Wednesday for a nine-year-old girl who was seized and thrown into the trunk of a stolen car, police and judicial sources in the city of Angouleme said.

The girl, named Fanny, was grabbed Tuesday afternoon as she was riding a child’s scooter on the sidewalk near her home in the town of Jarnac, near Cognac in Charente.

She was bundled into the trunk of a stolen car by her unidentified abductor who then sped away, according to witnesses who immediately alerted her parents, local prosecutor general Christian Lagarde said.

The regional police chief, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Bolmont, said the only description of the kidnapper was that of a young man around 25 years old.

“We don’t have any other details nor characteristics. We are moving ahead bit by bit,” he said.

Emergency procedures swung into operation in Charente and neighbouring departments in west central France, and a helicopter was brought in to scour the area, police said.

As of early Wednesday there was no sign of the girl or her kidnapper.

© AFP

                                                              Subject: France news