Search Intensifies in Brantham for Missing Three-Year-Old Noah

Police and residents in the village of Brantham, Suffolk, pressed on with their search on Wednesday for a three-year-old boy who disappeared from a playground the previous afternoon.

The child, named Noah, is autistic, non-verbal and has partial hearing loss, according to Suffolk police. He was last seen at about 3 p.m. on Tuesday after he became separated from a relative following a visit to the playground.

Officers believe Noah, who is white with curly ginger hair, ran off down an alleyway beside the playground in the direction of a new-build housing estate.

Since Tuesday afternoon, specially trained officers and dog units have been combing the village, which lies near the estuary of the River Stour. They have been supported from the air by helicopters from the National Police Air Service and HM Coastguard.

On the ground, the Coastguard, Suffolk Fire & Rescue Service, Suffolk Lowland Search & Rescue and members of the public have joined the effort.

Mal Bridgeman, chair of Brantham Parish Council, described the community's response as extraordinary. He said hundreds upon hundreds of people — by some estimates a few thousand — turned out in the village on Tuesday night, with cars causing gridlock and the lights of iPhones illuminating the fields.

Bridgeman added that residents were awaiting the latest update from police, who want to coordinate volunteers so that certain areas are covered by the public while others are left to officers using specialist equipment.

Media reports said more than 100 people joined the search on Tuesday evening, checking gardens, sheds and outbuildings at the instruction of police.