A man has been arrested in connection with the apparent kidnapping of a nine-year-old girl who vanished from a wedding attended by nearly 200 guests.
The girl, Maëlys De Araujo, was last seen in a children's room in the town of Pont-de-Beauvoisin. She attended the wedding with her parents and older sister.
The man arrested was 'near the wedding venue' when she disappeared, and his account of his whereabouts that night contained inconsistencies, the Mail Online reported a police source saying.
Regional police chief Yves Marzian said three sniffer dogs had all lost the scent from Maelys's cuddly toy at 'the same spot' in the car park outside the venue.
'One of the possible theories is that little Maelys left in a car, one way or another,' Marzian said.
One of the wedding guests, identified only as Gregory, told Le Parisien: 'The DJ for the evening announced on the microphone that a child had disappeared. Suddenly, everyone started searching, in the main hall and outside.
'It was anguish. To see the disappearance of a nine-year-old, that's not nothing.'