Three-year-old Ajloun boy found four hours after being reported missing

AMMAN — A three-year-old Ajloun boy who went missing Thursday evening has been reunited with his parents and is reported to be in good health. 

Odeh Zghoul was reported missing from his parents’ house in the village of Anjara in Ajloun Governorate at 6pm on Thursday, and was found four hours later after an intensive search operation by rescue teams from the army and security bodies, according to Amen FM, the Public Security Department’s (PSD) radio station. 

The police radio station said around 320 officers from the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army, the PSD and the Civil Defence Department rushed to the scene to search for the child, who went missing in a forested area near Anjara, around 65km north of the capital. 

The rescue teams used cars equipped with searchlights, Ajloun Governor Abdullah Al Khattab told Amen FM. 

Khattab and other senior army and security officers were at the scene, the radio station said, adding that dozens of residents and volunteers took part in the search operation. 

The child was found near the main road linking Anjara with Sakeb, some 70 kilometres northwest of Amman, and was given first aid at Al Iman Public Hospital, where he was reported to be in good health. 

The boy’s family expressed their gratitude for the efforts of the army and security bodies, according to Amen FM, which posted photos of the search operation and the child on its official Facebook page.

Officers from the station visited the boy’s family to check on his health.   

In April 2009, five-year-old Ward Rababaah went missing in Irbid’s Jdeita village after he went to a nearby bakery to buy bread for the family.

Major search operations involving 2,000 police officers and around 5,000 volunteers were conducted to find the boy, but to no avail.

The boy still hasn’t been found.