



Ashya King search: time running out for 'kidnapped' British boy


Chloe Coupeau

Five-year-old Ashya King, who has a brain tumour, is believed to be in France.

Five-year-old Ashya King, who has a brain tumour, is believed to be in France. Photo: AP

Cherbourg, France: A frantic police hunt is under way for a five-year-old boy with a brain tumour taken from a British hospital by his family, as fears for his life intensify hourly .

Ashya King's parents took him on Thursday from a hospital in the British south coast city of Southampton without doctors' consent and boarded a ferry to the French port of Cherbourg.

It is not known why Brett King, 51, and Naghemeh King, 45, took their son. Althoughthey are Jehovah's Witnesses, the movement said there was no indication their decision was motivated by religious convictions.

"There are serious concerns for Ashya's health, he is immobile and likely to be in a wheelchair or buggy, and cannot communicate verbally," Interpol said.

The missing persons alert went out to all 190 Interpol member countries, dramatically stepping up the hunt for the child.

Detective superintendent Dick Pearson from Hampshire police said: "If we do not locate Ashya today there are serious concerns for his life."

The youngster, who has undergone extensive surgery and was last operated on seven days ago, is fed through a tube on a battery-operated system.

Hampshire Police assistant chief constable Chris Shead said late on Friday: "We have been told by medical experts that the battery life on the machine that administers his food is now likely to have expired.



The hospital said Ashya was allowed to leave the ward under his parents' supervision and staff raised the alarm when the length of his absence "became a cause of concern".

"The information we have received from his medical team at Southampton General Hospital is that he must continue to be fed via a tube by someone with the relevant medical training," Shead said.

"If he doesn't receive urgent medical care, or the wrong treatment is given, his condition will become life-threatening."

Cherbourg prosecutor Eric Bouillard said authorities considered the boy had been "kidnapped given the circumstances of his departure from hospital".

"For the moment, what we most want to do is contact the family," he added.

Jehovah's Witnesses are known for refusing blood transfusions on religious grounds, but they are otherwise open to other medical procedures.

French authorities say the parentsarrived on Thursday night with their Ashya and their other six children, aged from three to 22.


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