French authorities said they still hoped to find the two-and-a-half-year-old who went missing in the French Alps on Saturday.
Émile was with his grandparents when he disappeared on Saturday. He was last seen alone by two neighbors in the rue Haut-Vernet, a small village of 25 inhabitants at an altitude of about 1,200 meters.
“We have not stopped searching and we still have hope,” Mayor Marc Chappuis told reporters on Monday.
But after 48 hours of unsuccessfully combing the area, the search is becoming “more focused” and “more selective,” he said.
Specialized forensic units were called in and more residents were interviewed in the hope of getting more information.
Authorities still have no information about what may have happened to Emile.
“All possible explanations are on the table, we neither favor nor exclude them,” prosecutor Remy Avon said.
Several witnesses were questioned and all but two unoccupied homes were searched, he said.
Hundreds of volunteers are helping in the search.
“We’re on a big search with 50 other people,” says Roxane, 19, who came to help with two friends on Monday.
“There was a space of two meters between the two of us, we searched the fields and the forest,” he said.
The terrain in the search zone is mountainous and the region has been hit by a heat wave, with temperatures expected to reach 34 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.
Police are still awaiting discovery thanks to witness statements.
Source: DN
