Hundreds pray in Malaysia for missing Franco-Irish teen
Hundreds of Muslims yesterday held a special prayer session for a Franco-Irish teen who went missing from a Malaysian resort, as a massive search team scoured the jungle for a sixth day.
Nora Quoirin, a 15-year-old with learning difficulties, disappeared Sunday a day after checking into the resort with her London-based family.
They believe she was abducted, but police have classified it as a missing person case.
A search team of over 250 people, backed by helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs, is hunting through dense jungle next to the site in southwestern Malaysia but have not found any trace of the teenager.
Some 300 people, many wearing Muslim prayer caps, knelt in prayer during the session dedicated to the teen in the afternoon at a mosque in a nearby town.
“What we’re doing today is to help our friends in the search effort,” said Mohamad Taufek Awaludin, who led the session.
“We hope that the family... will be patient. This is a test from Allah.”
Several police officers and firefighters were among the group. Over two-thirds of Malaysia’s 32 million inhabitants are Muslim.
Officials have been playing a recording of the schoolgirl’s mother, Meabh Quoirin, calling out “Nora, Nora darling, Mummy’s here” through loudspeakers in the hope of drawing her out of the jungle, if she is still there.
The daughter of a Franco-Irish couple went missing from the 12-acre (five-hectare) Dusun Resort, about an hour outside Kuala Lumpur and in the foothills of a mountain range and next to a forest reserve.
Her family has said it would be extremely unusual for the reserved youngster to have wandered off on her own. While officially treating it as a missing person case, police say they have not ruled out any other possibilities.
They have questioned around 20 people and are examining fingerprints found on a window pane.
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