The swimming pool is located about five kilometers from the playground on Hertogenlaan and Zonstraat in Kerkrade. There the child was last seen.
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The area where the scooter was found has been cordoned off
AS Media
Gino, who was last seen with his scooter in Kerkrade on Wednesday evening, is in acute danger, according to the police. “A nine-year-old boy going missing on the second night, out on the street, is in imminent danger.” Danny Frijters, head of the Limburg police investigation, reports this during a press conference in Maastricht. Frijters calls on the public to provide information. “However small, it can help.”
The police issued an Amber Alert earlier Thursday afternoon due to the missing 9-year-old Gino. He was last seen on Wednesday evening between 7.30 pm and 8.30 pm in a playground on Hertogenlaan and Zonstraat in Kerkrade. The police were alerted around midnight that Gino had not yet returned home.
The police raised the alarm because no explanation can be found for the disappearance of the boy. An appeal was placed via Burgernet to look out for Gino. According to his sister, the boy had a black scooter with red handles.
Police looking for man
The police say they are looking for an adult man who was playing football on the playing field where the boy was said to have been at the time of Gino’s disappearance. The man is wanted as a witness, a police spokeswoman emphasized. In addition to the man, there were also three children playing football on the playing field on Hertogenlaan and Zonstraat in Kerkrade on Wednesday evening. The police have already spoken to them, but not yet with the man. He is urged to come forward, police said.
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The police have also deployed a helicopter. A group of thirty to forty volunteers are looking for the missing boy in Kerkrade, but have since gone to Landgraaf because the scooter that may have belonged to Gino was found there.
The people who were looking for Gino tonight have come to the place where the scooter was found
AS Media
The group, including the boy’s two sisters, left around 5.30 p.m. from the playground on Hertogenlaan where he was last seen, from there they started looking at and in the Berenbos. Along the way, several residential areas were passed. So far, the searchers have not found anyone. The police are calling on witnesses and especially people who have camera images from Wednesday evening from the area to come forward.
A group of thirty to forty volunteers searches for the missing Gino (9)
AP
Volunteers hand out pamphlets to passing motorists
AP
The detectives cordoned off a spot near the Berenbos along the Rodelandbaan on Thursday afternoon and examined it closely. The fence was removed around 3 p.m.
VIDEO: Missing Gino’s family is deeply concerned. Text continues below the video.
play football
According to a 21-year-old sister, the boy lives with his mother in Maastricht. But he is ill, and for a week now he has been staying with a 32-year-old sister in Kerkrade. The two sisters say they searched until 5 a.m. Thursday morning, after which the sister with whom the boy is staying spent two hours at the police station. The 32-year-old woman in Kerkrade is herself a mother of two small children.
According to the 21-year-old sister, the boy went to play football on Wednesday evening at a playground in Kerkrade, near his guest address. He should have been back by 7:30 PM. But he has been missing since then.
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The police are looking for the missing Gino with sniffer dogs.
The Limburger
sniffer dogs
“We searched for a large part of the night with a drone team and sniffer dogs. We searched all the places where he could logically be. We are still working in the area with a drone. But we are also considering the next steps,” said police spokesman Wim Coenen.
Gino has blond hair, is 130 centimeters tall and wears a red coat with black sleeves. He also wears a red Nike cap, gray jeans and green shoes with a white sole. Coenen: „All scenarios are on the table for us. But this seems quite alarming.”
The police have now also informed the German police. Kerkrade is located on the German border.
‘He took off on his scooter when she approached him’
A woman who lives in the Kerkraadse neighborhood where the nine-year-old missing Gino disappeared, says she saw the child on Thursday morning. “I’m very sure,” says Lenie, an elderly lady behind a walker. “I still got the photo. It was him, here on the Deken Deutzlaan. And my home care worker saw it too. She was on her way to me. She even asked him if he shouldn’t be at school. He visibly startled. He then took off on his scooter, he was also wearing his cap. I called the police right after I saw Gino. They have visited me twice since then. Shortly after my report, the entire square was also full of police. I’m not just saying this because I know it means he was at least unharmed today.”
Police declined to comment on the specific report. “But we’re going to follow every tip now. We are keeping all options open at the moment.”
In the meantime, dozens of local residents have started a search this afternoon. This is in response to a call on social media. “We can’t just wait and see,” says initiator Ramona Linqvist from Heerlen. “I have no connection whatsoever with this case. All I see is that a nine-year-old boy has been gone all night. That is why we have to start searching with as many people as possible.”