Missing girl, 11 found safe... with £1,000 from her parents’ savings

AN 11-year-old girl took £1,000 from her parents’ savings jar and went on a 200-mile solo sightseeing trip to London before she was found by police after a frantic search.

Fatuma Kadir was unharmed and back with her family last night, much to the relief of her parents who were said to be in a ‘state of shock’ after she vanished from their home in Bolton.

The schoolgirl, who dreams of moving to the capital to open a fashion business, pocketed the cash before creeping out of the family’s terraced home on Thursday night and catching three trains south via Manchester and Birmingham.

When challenged by concerned passengers on the trains, she claimed she was 15 and going to visit an aunt in London. A source said she may have checked herself into a riverside hotel near Tower Bridge after arriving in London in the early hours of Friday.

As their daughter toured visitor attractions, including Buckingham Palace and the London Eye, her desperate parents Asheem and Misra, flanked by police officers, made several tearful public appeals to find the missing girl.

She was finally found near London Bridge at around 3pm yesterday.

‘ We’re just relieved and pleased that she’s been found,’ her father told The Mail on Sunday as he waited to be reunited with Fatuma, who is the eldest of four children.

He said that he did not know how much of the £1,000 was left, adding: ‘She must have had a big adventure.’ A family friend, Abdulkarim Kore, 35, said: ‘ She seems to have just decided to go on a tourist trip to London, to see London Bridge and to visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace.’ She added, jokingly: ‘ I think after this adventure she’s going to be a tour guide.’

Meanwhile, a search is continuing for 12-year-old Mannat Mann who has gone missing in East London. Police said they were ‘increasingly concerned’ about the schoolgirl who was last seen near Wanstead Park in Redbridge at 1.45pm on Thursday, wearing only a white T-shirt and grey leggings with a white stripe.

Officers said Mannat, who has links to Wolverhampton, did not know the area where she vanished and had not tried to contact relatives in London.