Aybüke İnce, a 3-year-old girl who had been reported missing by her family in the Çayıralan district of Yozgat province, about 300 kilometers east of Ankara, was finally found alive following a search and rescue operation involving teams from the gendarmerie, the police, AFAD, forestry personnel, and volunteers from Yozgat and the neighboring province of Kayseri, in central Turkey.
According to reports released by the Turkish news agency DHA, the İnce family, residents of the village of Söbeçimen, began searching for the child in the vicinity of their home after realizing they had not seen her for some time; unable to locate her, the girl’s relatives decided to alert the authorities shortly after 8:00 p.m. on May 28. A large-scale search operation was immediately launched, involving members of the gendarmerie, the police, the Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD), the Forestry Directorate, and volunteers from the province of Yozgat and the neighboring province of Kayseri.
In a message posted on social media, the Yozgat Governor’s Office reported that a large-scale operation was underway to find little Aybüke İnce, who had wandered away from her home in the Alamettin Plateau area, where the village of Söbeçimen is located. “We thank our teams and the volunteer citizens participating in the search efforts. Our search efforts will continue uninterrupted, utilizing all state resources to find our little girl safe and sound,” stated Yozgat Governor Mehmet Ali Özkan, who personally oversaw the search and rescue operations.
The girl was found safe and sound 2 kilometers from the site
Finally, the governor announced that, early this morning, the child was found in good condition: “Our 3-year-old girl… was found safe and sound at approximately 6:00 a.m. this morning, about 2 kilometers from where she went missing, thanks to the search efforts carried out throughout the night by our teams and citizen volunteers. It has been determined that the child’s overall health is good, and we extend our best wishes to her family and all our citizens.”
“We thank the gendarmerie, AFAD and its volunteers, the police, the Forestry Directorate, the medical teams, Türk Telekom, the Red Crescent staff, and the citizen volunteers who participated in the search and rescue efforts for the girl, as well as the NGOs from neighboring provinces… for their dedicated and tireless work throughout the night,” said Özkan.
This good news regarding the missing girl in Yozgat comes after several recent cases of missing children in Turkey ended in tragedy. Two weeks ago, Mendul Dirimo, a 9-year-old boy from Osmaniye in southern Türkiye, was found dead in a river after his family alerted the authorities to his disappearance. In late April, another missing child in the province of Hakkari, in southeastern Anatolia, was found dead following an intense four-day search involving dozens of personnel.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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