Yahoo News Girl, 3, who sparked police manhunt over abduction fears was actually having a tantrum with her father
Police have called off a manhunt after it emerged an ‘abducted’ three-year-old girl had actually having a tantrum in public with her father.
Sussex Police had released CCTV images of the toddler with a man in Churchill Square Shopping Centre in Brighton.
It said it was acting on reports on Monday from the public that a man had picked up a small child and walked away near a branch of Ladbrokes.
Reports on social media had claimed the young child had shouted ‘stranger, stranger’.
A police helicopter was used in an effort to locate the girl.
However, it later emerged that the man in the footage was the girl’s father, who was trying to get her to behave while she was having a tantrum.
The father contacted police after the force released the images. He told them he was remonstrating with the girl because she didn’t want to go home yet.
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In a later statement, Sussex Police said: “Police investigating a report of a possible child abduction in Brighton can confirm that the little girl seen in Western Road at the western entrance to Clarence Square on Monday afternoon was in fact with her father, and she is safe and sound, asleep, at home.
“Officers had made extensive searches and initiated publicity after a report that a man may have picked up a small child and walked off.
“No reports of missing children were received.
“Shortly before midnight on Monday a Brighton man contacted police as a result of news and social media coverage to say that the image released by police of man and child was of him and his three-year-old daughter, who had been reluctant to go home at the time.
“Officers have been to their address and confirmed the information.
“It is clear that the person who first called police in the afternoon had misinterpreted what they saw but was acting in perfectly good faith.
“Our thanks go to all news media and social media users who helped spread the word.”
