Police in Italy are searching for a five-year-old Peruvian girl who was allegedly wrapped in a suitcase and abducted from a hotel 10 days ago, reports Metro.
Catalea Mia Chisillo Alvarez disappeared on June 10 from the former Astor Hotel in Florence – where about 140 migrants were staying.
Surveillance footage shows her playing on the building’s courtyard steps at 3:12 p.m. before she disappeared.
Police are working on a theory that it was packed in a trunk or suitcase and taken out of one of the hotel’s two exits, the Daily Mail reported.
On Saturday, they cleared the building of its occupants – who were living there illegally – and searched the premises for evidence.
Officers also searched another nearby building and garage, suspecting she had been temporarily moved there.
Anti-Mafia police are believed to be involved in the investigation, reports Metro.
Cataleira’s family had been living together in a room in a former hotel inhabited by migrants since September last year. The family moved to Italy when she was six months old.
Catalia’s parents, Catharina Alvarez and Miguel Angel Romero, attended a service in Via Lulli near the hotel to pray for their daughter’s safe return.
The chaplain said: “This disappearance has mobilised many people full of good will who courageously committed themselves from the first moment they learned of the disappearance, gathered together and began the search. This disappearance saddened not only the Peruvians present in Florence, but also the whole Florentine community, even from abroad, in particular from Peru. We welcome once again the invitation that Cardinal Giuseppe Betori has addressed to all the parishes of the diocese of Florence to pray for the return of our Kataleya,” reports Metro.
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