Police are continuing in their search for three year old Mikaeel Kular who went missing overnight from his home at Ferry Gait Crescent Edinburgh.
A press conference was held at the Fettes Avenue Police Station at 4.30pm where Superintendent Liz McAinsh announced the launch of the dedicated telephone number 03002000200 which has been activated throughout the UK and will be answered by dedicated police officers
She said: “I would stress that the focus of our search remains in Edinburgh, in the Drylaw area, specifically in the Pennywell, Muirhouse and Silverknowes areas. I am aware that you all know that numerous police officers and other organisations are assisting us in our search today in that area and I would like to thank everybody for the help that they have given us.
“I can also give you some additional information in relation to a description of Mikaeel. As you know is a three year old boy. He is 2ft tall. He is British of Asian appearance and he is believed to be wearing a beige coloured jacket with a grey fur lined hood. He may be wearing black gloves with multi coloured fingers. He has on dark blue jogging bottoms, a grey pyjama top with a wee turquoise dinosaur embroidered onto it and brown Velcro shoes.
“He has a small scar on his nose which is faded and also a wee sore on the left hand corner of his mouth.
“Again I would stress that our focus remains in Edinburgh, in the Pennywell area, Muirhouse and Silverknowes and I would ask anyone who has information to contact us on the dedicated number.
When asked whether she thought that any harm had come to the youngster, Superintendent McAinsh said: “I would stress that at the moment we have no evidence of criminality and it remains a missing person enquiry. Our concerns are obviously with the passing of time. He was last seen at 9pm last night and I would ask people in the locality to please continue searching in your own personal property. If your neighbours are away, think about searching their gardens, sheds, common stairs, wheelie bins, anywhere where a three year old boy might shelter.
In relation to whether it was possible for a three year old boy to get through a heavy security door, she replied: “I have been assured that it is possible. Three year old children are resilient and they do have a good deal of strength and ability to open doors and I am assured that Mikaeel is capable of that.”
When asked whether police had spoken to Mikaeel’s father she said: “We have spoken to all key members of the family, we have been in contact with them and they are assisting us with our enquiries.”
Regarding any suspects, she said: “We have no suspects because we have no evidence of criminality. This is a missing person enquiry and that is where our focus is on, tracing Mikaeel safe and well.”
“We haven’t had any sightings of Mikaeel and that obviously causes us concern so I would again appeal to members of the public in the locality to please, if you have any information at all, contact 03002000200.
“We started the search at the house then spread out in a ripple effect and out search moves outwards and outwards all the time. We’ve been speaking to people and carrying out door to door enquiries. We are looking at CCTV and carrying out all possible enquiries.
“Mikaeel has two brothers and two sisters. He has a twin sister and his other brothers and sisters are older than him. He would normally share a bedroom with his twin sister but it is my understanding that he was sleeping on his own last night. His mother put him to bed last night; she was the last one to see him.
“There have been no arrests, no formal detentions but several people are helping us with our enquiries.
“As you can appreciate, this is a fast developing enquiry so we are prioritising throughout the whole of Police Scotland. We have all the available resources that we would want to help us.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
