CLOSE to 300 search and rescue personnel have gone back into the Jeram Toi rainforest near Seremban, Negri Sembilan, as the search for missing British teenager Nora Anne Quoirin enters its ninth day.

Nora, who has a learning disability, was reported missing after arriving at The Dusun Resort in Kg Pantai with her family from London on August 3 for a two-week holiday.

The case has drawn world attention and there is a large presence of foreign media at the site because of the mystery surrounding her disappearance.

The authorities have so far deployed an aircraft equipped with a thermal sensor imaging system, a recording of Nora’s mother to draw out the teenager, elite VAT69 commandos and scores of policemen, firemen and local villagers to look for the 15-year-old.

Police have also gone knocking on the doors of at least 30 houses and villas close to The Dusun in search of the teenager.

Bernama reported today that police have now also invited media personnel to join in the search.

Nilai police chief Mohd Nor Marzukee Besar extended the invitation to members of the press via a WhatsApp message. 

“Media who want to cover Op SAR can wait at the foothill of Gunung Berembun,” he said in his brief message.

Prior to this, members of the media were only allowed to wait at a tent provided near the entrance of the resort where Nora went missing and also at the Pantai police station in Seremban.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Mazlan Mansor visited the teenager’s parents, Sebastian and Meabh Quoirin, at The Dusun Resort yesterday and assured them that everything possible was being done to locate their daughter.

A hotline for the search and rescue operation was also launched. Those with information on the missing teenager can contact police at 011-1228-5058.

Her parents earlier told police that Nora had problems walking and that her physical and learning challenges were the result of holoprosencephaly, a condition present at birth that causes an infant to be born with a smaller brain.

“Nora likes to walk with her family, but her balance is limited and she struggles with coordination,” they said in pushing their suspicion that the teenager could have been abducted.

Police, however, said that although they were looking at all possibilities, they had not found any evidence to support the family’s claim. – August 12, 2019.