Search is canceled – so it continues

A massive contingent of rescue workers combed the fields around Bremervörde on Sunday – without success. What happens next?

In the search for six-year-old Arian from Bremervörde-Elm, the largest search operation to date with a total of 1,200 emergency services involved was unsuccessful on Sunday. The search ended at sunset and the police want to evaluate the results of the search measures that night.

The investigators’ hope: a new lead from the boy who ran out of his parents’ house on Monday evening and has since disappeared. The search will apparently continue on Monday morning – but how exactly is currently unclear. The emergency services still believe they can find Arian alive. “Giving up is not yet an option for us,” said a spokeswoman for the dpa news agency.

Arian is autistic and, according to an expert, he probably doesn’t respond to calls. A surveillance camera recorded the boy running into a neighboring forest after his disappearance.

Since the morning, around 800 helpers have been combing the area north of the boy’s home with a 1.5 kilometer long human chain. There were also 400 other forces who searched elsewhere.

“I have never led such a large search effort before,” said Jörg Wesemann, head of operations for the Rotenburg police. They are concentrating on an area where numerous traces have been found in the past few days. The aim is to “turn everything around again without any gaps,” explained a police spokeswoman.

Search dogs and drones were also used. The Technical Relief Agency (THW) and the fire department searched ditches and pipes in them. The search area, which was previously focused on the Elm area, was expanded on Sunday.

On Saturday the search focused again on the Oste, a tributary of the Elbe, near Elm. Emergency services traveled on the river with so-called sonar boats. On land, helpers walked the river. Additional emergency services combed the area between Elm and the municipality of Oldendorf. On Saturday, a dpa reporter observed around 30 Bundeswehr soldiers checking a pasture in the area. Unlike Friday, the search was not focused on Elm.

Before the weekend, Arian’s parents made an appeal to helpers on the police Facebook page, explaining how Arian could be helped. “We believe that Arian has set out on a great adventure,” it said. He could therefore have moved not only in Elm, but also in the surrounding communities and hidden there. They thanked everyone for helping with the search.

There is great support in the village, reported a mother who, together with her son, put up a self-painted picture at the entrance to the situation center in the local fire station on Sunday. “These are lucky shamrocks for Arian to come back,” she said. The pictures were taken as part of a kindergarten campaign.

“Everyone is hoping that Arian will come back and that he will just hide somewhere,” said the woman. “When you’re riding a bike, when you’re driving a car – you’re always looking left and right and hoping he’s walking somewhere,” she said. “Everyone wants to help and search. But we shouldn’t because there are enough emergency services on site who are really doing their best.”