Madoua, 4-Year-Old Boy with Autism, Missing in Neuilly-Plaisance. Search Ongoing

In the French commune of Neuilly-Plaisance, located in the Île-de-France region northeast of Paris, an intensive and increasingly anxious search is underway for a four-year-old boy named Madoua. The child, who has autism spectrum disorder and does not use speech, went missing on Wednesday, February 25, around 2:15 PM. He was last seen at a playground on the André Devambez promenade, located on the banks of the Marne River. According to reports, he was there under the care of his mother and brothers but briefly slipped away from her supervision. Neuilly-Plaisance is a small commune of about 21,000 inhabitants in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, part of the Paris metropolitan area. This region, like the entire suburbs of the French capital, is characterized by dense residential development and an extensive transportation network, which creates particularly complex logistical challenges for the services in the event of a missing person, especially a child.Footage from the municipal surveillance system indicates that the boy ran towards the neighboring town of Perreux-sur-Marne, located in the Val-de-Marne department. After that, the trail goes cold. The mayor of Neuilly-Plaisance, Christian Demuynck, confirmed this information to the media, adding that despite extensive searches, the child has still not been found. The authorities, deeming the situation exceptionally serious, have deployed a wide-ranging and specialized search apparatus. Police services involved in the operation are using drones to comb the area from the air. A key element of the operation is a helicopter equipped with thermal imaging cameras, which can detect heat sources, potentially invaluable for night searches or in hard-to-reach areas. Divers have also been called in, suggesting the search area includes bodies of water, likely the Marne River itself or its vicinity. Rescue dog teams are conducting ground tracking. Despite these advanced resources, as Mayor Demuynck reports, the efforts have so far yielded no results: „Divers and dogs came, but nothing”. The Paris Police Prefecture, overseeing operations in the region, has officially issued an appeal for witnesses, describing the disappearance as „worrying”. The statement provided a detailed description of the child's appearance: Madoua is of „African” ethnic origin, has short hair, is about one meter tall, and has a slight build. At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing gray pants, a red t-shirt, and a navy blue parka-style jacket with a light blue horizontal stripe. Another source, citing family members, describes him wearing a blue sweater with red epaulettes, which may indicate an inconsistency in the report or a change of clothing. The situation is worsened by the child's health condition. All sources consistently emphasize that Madoua is „affected by autistic disorders” and „does not express himself verbally”. This means the boy will not respond to his name being called, will not find his way home, and will not be able to independently ask for help from strangers. This clinical context gives the case a particularly dramatic dimension and undoubtedly influences the broad scope of resources deployed. The family and local community anxiously await news, and the services continue operations throughout the night and into the next day, aware that with each passing hour, the chances of a happy outcome may diminish.