Casablanca: Stormy Waves Halt Search for Missing British Girl Inaayah
Rescue operations to find Inaayah Makda, 7, swept away by a wave in Casablanca at the end of January, have been hampered by poor weather conditions. While land searches continue, the representative for her hometown said Thursday that operations at sea remain suspended.
The rescuers’ hope is running up against the fury of the elements. The sea search for Inaayah Makda, a British national missing since January 28, is currently being hampered by “extremely unfavorable” weather conditions, the BBC reports.
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The tragedy occurred along the Casablanca coastline. The girl, from Blackburn (northern England), was sitting on rocks with her parents, Zubair and Tasneem, when a wave swept all three of them into the water. Although the parents survived, they lost sight of their child in the waves.
Read also: Inaayah, 7, missing in Casablanca: her parents’ desperate cry for help
Adnan Hussain, Blackburn’s representative, confirmed Thursday that he had held a crisis meeting with the Foreign Office. He said he had received assurances from the Moroccan authorities and Civil Protection: sea searches will resume as soon as the storm subsides. In the meantime, land patrols continue to search the coastline.
The family, which still hopes that the child may have reached safety somewhere along the coast, has received strong public support. A fundraiser launched to finance private searches and cover expenses on the ground has already raised more than 61,000 pounds sterling (approximately 71,000 euros).
