Cleo Smith missing: Australian police hunt for four-year-old who disappeared

Cleo Smith missing: Australian police hunt for four-year-old who disappeared
Cleo Smith missing: Australian police hunt for four-year-old who disappeared

Police are hunting for a four-year-old girl who has been missing for three days after vanishing from a campsite in rural Australia. 

Cleo Smith was last seen by mother Ellie on Saturday in a tent they were sharing at the Blow Holes campsite on the coast of Western Australia

Ellie said she had an 'interaction' with Cleo around 1.30am, but when she woke up again at 6am the girl was gone - and has not been seen since.  

Police say they have 'grave concerns' for Cleo's safety, and are not ruling out the possibility that she was snatched from the tent.

The case drew immediate comparisons with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann - who went missing from her family's apartment at the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal aged three in 2007 and has not been seen since.

Cleo Smith, four, was last seen at about 1.30am on Saturday at the Blowholes campsite on the coast at Macleod, north of Carnarvon, in Western Australia

Cleo Smith, four, was last seen at about 1.30am on Saturday at the Blowholes campsite on the coast at Macleod, north of Carnarvon, in Western Australia 

Police are probing all possibilities of Cleo's mystery disappearance - including kidnapping - and have been scouring bushland and stopping cars and caravans in search of the missing girl

Police are probing all possibilities of Cleo's mystery disappearance - including kidnapping - and have been scouring bushland and stopping cars and caravans in search of the missing girl 

Officers said she was last seen wearing a wearing a pink/purple one-piece sleep-suit with a blue and yellow pattern.

Police say Cleo is 3ft, 7ins tall and has honey-blonde coloured hair and hazel eyes. 

At the times she was last seen, Cleo was in a red and black sleeping bag which is also thought to have gone missing.

Inspector Jon Munday, who is leading search efforts, said Monday that 'everything is still on the table' including the possibility that Cleo was taken.

He said officers have interviewed other people camping in the area to 'paint a picture of who was around here during the window of opportunity.'

Having spent several days searching the surrounding terrain using helicopters, drones and marine search teams, Munday said the search has now expanded to a number of coastal shacks.

Vehicles in the area are also being searched, including at least one caravan seen driving away from the campsite.

'We’ve gathered a lot of information and a lot of intelligence from things like dashcams, CCTV cameras around the place [and] at roadhouses,' Munday said.

Police are also considering the possibility that Cleo wandered off in the night and got lost, he said, adding: 'We’re going as hard as we can

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