CHERBOURG, France: A frantic police hunt was underway yesterday for a five-year-old boy with a brain tumour taken from a British hospital by his family, as fears for his life intensified with every passing hour.
Ashya King’s parents took him Thursday from a hospital in the British south coast city of Southampton without doctors’ consent and boarded a ferry to the French port of Cherbourg.
It is not known why Brett King, 51, and Naghemeh King, 45, took their son. While they are Jehovah’s Witnesses, the movement said Friday there
was no indication their decision was motivated by religious convictions.
“There are serious concerns for Ashya’s health, he is immobile and likely to be in a wheelchair or buggy, and cannot communicate verbally,” Interpol said in a statement.
The missing persons alert went out to all 190 Interpol member countries, dramatically stepping up the hunt for the missing child.
Detective superintendent Dick Pearson from police in Hampshire, southern England, who is leading the investigation, said: “If we do not locate Ashya today there are serious concerns for his life.”
The youngster, who has undergone extensive surgery and was last operated on seven days ago, is fed through a tube on a battery-operated system.
Hampshire Police assistant chief constable Chris Shead said late Friday: “We have been told by medical experts that the battery life on the machine that administers his food is now likely to have expired. — AFP