Italy: Toddler missing since Monday night found alive

A search continued throughout the night in a desperate attempt to find a toddler who went missing from his parents' house in a remote mountainous area in the Mugello region of northern Tuscany.

The 21-month-old Nicola Tanturli disappeared on the night between 21 and 22 June from a farmhouse in the Apennines where he lives with his German parents and four-year-old brother.

Authorities are currently working on the theory that the child woke up in the middle of the night, left the house - possibly while sleepwalking - and never returned.

Yesterday divers searched a nearby artificial lake but found no trace of the toddler while last night a helicopter with state-of-the-art thermal scanning and infrared equipment was deployed by the army and alpine rescue experts.

The search extends over an inaccessible area of about 10 square kilometres, involving around 200 people including carabinieri, mountain rescue and civil protection volunteers, in addition to drones and specially-trained dogs attempting to track the boy's scent.

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