Quebec provincial police are searching for a three-year-old girl who was last seen Sunday morning in Montreal.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) says the child, Claire Bell, was reported missing Sunday afternoon in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., about 50 kilometres west of where she was last seen in Montreal’s LaSalle borough.
According to authorities, a woman who was caring for the girl entered a business in Coteau-du-Lac around 3 p.m. and said she couldn’t find the child.
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Police searched through the night in both LaSalle and Coteau-du-Lac and also looked in Ontario.
Police did not issued an Amber Alert, which is triggered when a child is abducted and in imminent danger, because the case does not meet the criteria needed.
Three criteria must be met for an Amber Alert to be issued in Quebec. First, police must believe that a child under the age of 18 has been abducted. Second, the child must be at risk of serious bodily harm or death.
The third criteria is that police must have a description of the child, the suspect, and the means of transportation used — detailed enough to believe that an alert could help locate the child.
In this case, police have a description of the child and the clothing she was wearing at the time of her disappearance, but do not have further information.
The girl is three feet tall, has brown hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing a white long-sleeve shirt with pink on the collar and grey pants.
— with files from The Canadian Press
