Search efforts continue for 8-year-old in southeastern Turkey
Search efforts for 8-year-old Narin Güran, who went missing on August 21 after leaving a Quran course in the rural Diyarbakır of southeastern Turkey, continued into their seventh day. Authorities questioned 130 people and deployed tracking dogs to cover some three acres of land.
Duvar English
Search efforts on Aug. 27 entered their seventh day in southeastern Turkey’s Diyarbakır province for eight-year-old Narin Güran.
Güran left home on Aug. 21 to attend a Quran course but did not return home afterward. She was reported missing the same evening, and local rescue teams including the gendarmerie, commando, tracker dogs, and underwater search teams were dispatched to the Tavşantepe village, according to reporting by the Demirören News Agency (DHA).
Additionally, authorities questioned approximately 150 vehicles that were identified as passing through the area around the time Güran went missing. Houses in the neighborhood and vehicles entering the village were searched.
On the night of August 22, a child’s slipper was found by the roadside during the search. The slipper, found about three kilometers from the Güran family’s home, was shown to Narin’s parents, who confirmed that it belonged to their daughter. However, the family later reported that the slipper size did not match Narin’s. The slipper was sent to a laboratory for further examination.
Footage of Narin before she went missing also surfaced. The school’s security footage from 3:15 p.m. on Aug. 21 showed Narin walking with four friends before separating and taking the hill road toward her home.
Mother Yüksel Güran spoke to the Kurdish online news outlet Rûdaw. Sharing her despair about her daughter’s disappearance, Güran said that she desperately wanted her to be found as soon as possible.
She continued, "It feels like the world is closing in on me. I can’t breathe, and I don’t understand people. It’s like I’m in prison. I don’t know where my daughter is. I don’t know if she’s in the hands of bad people or good people. I don’t know if she’s alive or dead. For me, the world is now a prison, and I’m trapped inside it."