Across Germany, almost 10,000 people are currently listed as missing people. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, most of the missing people quickly reappear.
Almost 10,000 people are missing in Germany. At the beginning of the month, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) recorded 9,554 women and men whose whereabouts were unclear. A spokeswoman for the authorities in Wiesbaden told the dpa news agency.
70 percent of the missing are men, young men or boys. According to the information, 1,845 children under the age of 13 have disappeared. It was also unclear where 3,458 young people between the ages of 14 and 17 were staying.
Only three percent are missing for longer
“Around 200 to 300 new searches are recorded every day, and around the same number are deleted because they have been completed,” said the spokeswoman. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, around half of missing person cases are solved within the first week. Within a month it was 80 percent of the cases. “The proportion of people who have been missing for more than a year is around three percent.”
Minors are quickly searched for
According to the BKA, the number of missing people fluctuates nationwide. The police initiate a search for missing persons when a person has left their usual circle of life, their whereabouts are unknown and a danger to life or limb can be assumed. “In the case of minors whose whereabouts are unknown to the person with custody, it is generally assumed that there is a risk to life or physical integrity.”
Experts are working on the current case in Lower Saxony
A case in Lower Saxony is currently causing a nationwide stir: an autistic boy from near Bremervörde has been missing for more than two weeks. Police believe he left home on his own. For a week, hundreds of emergency services and volunteers searched for him day and night. At the end of April, the police stopped the active search and a group of five investigators is continuing to work on the case.