Local police said on Friday that they are still searching for a 4-year-old girl, who was reported missing on the beach on Wednesday evening.
The girl's parents went to a police station in Lingang of the Pudong New Area at 6:40pm on Wednesday, saying their daughter was missing while playing on the beach.
According to the father, the family went to the beach on the day. He took the girl surnamed Huang to play in the sand, about 20 meters away from the seawater. Then he went to get his cellphone, leaving the girl on the beach for a little more than 10 minutes. The girl was missing when he returned. After failing to find the girl, he turned to the police for help.
The police organized manpower to search along the beach but weren't able to find the girl after searching overnight.
Pudong police teamed up with another six search teams with nearly 200 members to comb the area the next day, and checked all the some 20 surveillance cameras around the beach, excluding the possibility that the girl was taken by other people.
Since the cameras were located far away, the image is not clear. The father identified the girl on the camera on Thursday evening and pointed out the position of him and the girl.
Police found the image of the girl among nearly 100 people and followed her, watching her at the original position for about 10 minutes and then walking toward water. She was seen falling in the water and going missing in the waves.
Pudong police said it has coordinated with experts from Shanghai Ocean University and Shanghai Maritime University to study the current direction for further searching. The police also require local residents to provide useful information.
