The father of a missing three-year-old boy has pleaded with the public to keep searching as he ‘cannot go another night knowing he’s out there alone’.
Local officials said at 5am that there had been no sightings of three–year–old Noah Woods, who is non-verbal and partially deaf, who vanished from a playground in Suffolk yesterday.
Noah is believed to have run off from a relative out of the playground in the village of Brantham, disappearing down an alleyway at 3pm on Tuesday.
Residents have been urged to check their gardens, sheds and outbuildings, and those with CCTV or doorbell cameras have been asked to review the footage.
This morning, police cordoned off a footpath beside the playground, while a helicopter hovered overhead and circled around the area.
Hundreds of members of the public turned out to help police overnight as the hunt continued throughout the village.
Posting to Facebook, Noah’s father Rhys Woods said the emergency services believe that his young son is no longer in the immediate areas around the playground where he disappeared.
He asked the public to ‘please don’t give up on him’ and to continue searching, telling them ‘he is out there somewhere’.
Noah, who is mildly autistic and unlikely to respond to his name being called, was described as white with curly ginger hair. He was wearing a t–shirt with cartoon character Bluey on it, shorts and white trainers when he went missing.
The alleyway he disappeared down leads to a new–build housing estate, a local pond and a railway line.
‘We still have nothing, all the emergency services and all of you have shown how strong this community is, with people coming from far and wide also,’ Mr Woods wrote.
Hundreds of members of the public have joined the search to find three–year–old Noah Woods, who went missing after visiting a playground in Suffolk
Members of the public turned out to help police as the search continues for Noah throughout the village of Brantham
Noah vanished after becoming separated from a relative in Merriam Close, Brantham, on Tuesday afternoon
Emergency services are searching the Brantham area in a bid to locate him, while residents have been urged to check their gardens, sheds and outbuildings
This morning, police cordoned off a footpath beside the playground, while a helicopter hovered overhead and circled around the area
‘The emergency services are very confident that the high risk areas (Decoy pond, railway lines) are all clear.
‘This means knowing our boy, he has gone even further, could I ask that all of you brilliant people out there today expand further if you are able to?
‘I cannot go another night knowing he’s out there alone, please don’t give up on him guys. He is out there somewhere and I appreciate every single one of you.’
Noah’s great uncle, Tony Malcolm, who was part of the search team, described him as ‘a lovely little kid’.
Police and Crime Commissioner for Suffolk Tim Passmore urged those joining the ongoing searches not to go out alone and to get direction from those organising the response.
Speaking to BBC Radio Suffolk, he said: ‘As time goes by I really hope we can get some good news. I can’t think of anything worse than a poor little three-year-old lad going missing and not being found.
‘My thoughts are prayers are with all the people involved and I really hope he gets found very, very quickly.’
Yesterday, a Coastguard helicopter was seen circling the village, which is near the estuary of the River Stour.
And passengers on trains between Manningtree and Ipswich were told that their services would be run at a reduced speed because of the searches.
Volunteers from Suffolk Lowland Search and Rescue used a boat to search Decoy Pond, the local beauty spot Noah was seen running towards.
Police dog units joined the search overnight, and thermal imaging cameras were deployed.
Just before midnight, volunteers who joined the hunt were told to go home for the night and rest, but many remained on the streets.
Sarah Keys, the clerk of Brantham parish council, said around 500 people had stayed up all night to carry on searching for Noah.
Noah’s father Rhys Woods (pictured) asked the public to ‘please don’t give up on him’ and to continue searching, telling them ‘he is out there somewhere’.
The village hall stayed open during the night, and the council also printed out hundreds of maps for volunteers to use in their searches.
Ms Keys said: ‘There were about 1,000 people out at one point. I think local people are just feeling devastated. Everyone just wants to pull together and help.’
Dozens of locals gathered at the village hall from 8.30am in the hope of getting a police briefing about where to search, but many decided to head off on their own before a senior officer arrived to talk to them.
Ms Keys choked back tears as she told the crowd: ‘I know your feet are itching to go out and look for that little boy. We just want to find him.’
Around 200 locals who had arrived at the hall by around 9.30am were split into two groups with fitter people being allocated to search muddy tracks and fields while others were told to concentrate on the paved areas of the village.
In a Facebook post just after 5am on Wednesday, Brantham Parish Council said there had been no confirmed sightings of Noah.
‘The search for Noah continues this morning,’ the post said.
‘If you are able to help with the search today, please keep safe and take care of yourselves. Search in pairs where possible, wear high-vis clothing and take extra care around roads, water, woodland and other potentially dangerous areas. Please take a fully charged mobile phone with you.
‘Please also check your own property thoroughly, including gardens, sheds, garages, outbuildings, vehicles and under or behind furniture.
‘If the police ask you to move away from an area, please follow their instructions. This may be to allow specialist search activity to take place.’
The search continues in darkness for three–year–old Noah, who disappeared in Brantham
Volunteers who joined the hunt have now been told to go home for the night and rest
Last night, Brantham Parish Council wrote on its Facebook page: ‘We have been completely overwhelmed by the support received from the Brantham community and from visitors from far and wide and our thanks go to the emergency services and all the volunteers who have joined the search so far.
‘The Village Hall will be open all night with toilet facilities and drinks if you need it.
‘The emergency services will be continuing their search throughout the night.’
One police officer manning the cordon last night urged the public to allow officers to get on with the job themselves.
He told the Harwich and Manningtree Standard: ‘We have been given information and we want to search this bit with our teams now that we have got the teams here.
‘You’ve got dog units looking for any sort of tracks, and then we’ve got thermal imaging going throughout the wooded area.
‘At this time of night with this light, it’s harder for members of the public – we want to make sure we can do that with all of our equipment we’ve got.
‘The more people we have got in there [in the woodland] the harder it is going to be for us, especially with scents – if there is a scent or a track or anything like that, we don’t want that to be changed in any way.
‘If there are people in there, the thermal imaging is going to pick up them as opposed to obviously all of our goal to find the little man.’
Suffolk Police said anyone with information about Noah’s whereabouts should contact them.
They said: ‘Police are appealing for help to locate a missing three–year–old boy in Brantham.
‘Noah was last seen at approximately 3pm [on] Tuesday 15 September, when he became separated from a relative after visiting the playground in Merriam Close.
‘Noah is reported to have run off down the alleyway beside the playground towards the new build housing estate.
‘Noah is described as white, with curly ginger hair. He is wearing a white Bluey t–shirt, shorts and white trainers.’
A spokesman for HM Coastguard said: ‘We are assisting Suffolk Constabulary with an incident at Brantham by sending an HM Coastguard helicopter and Coastguard Rescue Teams from Felixstowe and Holbrook.’
