Parents distraught after teenager goes missing in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi: An expatriate couple has filed a police report saying their 16-year-old daughter of Chinese origin went missing on Thursday night in the capital.

Li Xue, an eighth grade pupil at Emirates Private School, was last seen getting into a taxi late on Thursday near Shakespeare Restaurant on Muroor Street near her apartment, Zhu Chunyan, 40, her Chinese mother, and Gil Loc, 40, her French stepfather, told Gulf News on Saturday. Her passport is at home with her parents.

The family has been living in an apartment for more than a year at Yacoob Tower behind the Holiday Inn Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

Since both parents work until late in the evening, the daughter used to carry the apartment key with her to return home around 3pm on schooldays and would wait alone until her parents returned, they said.

But she had forgotten to take the key and pocket money that day, her mother said.

Zhu, who works at her own beauty salon on Salam Street, said she had received a call from a Chinese woman around 4.30pm on Thursday, saying her daughter was waiting at a restaurant as she did not have the door key or any money.

"It seems Xue accepted her offer to call me because the battery of her mobile phone must have run out. I asked her to take a taxi and come to my salon and I would pay the taxi," the mother explained.

"The Chinese woman did not speak proper English but was speaking in Cantonese, a Chinese dialect, which I could not follow properly [she speaks Mandarin].

"She neither handed over the phone to the daughter nor was in a position to explain their location apparently due to a language problem."

"It was getting late to reach the salon and I thought the taxi might have taken her to a wrong place and she would reach me soon," Zhu said.

The teenager does not speak English properly and does not the know places well because she only arrived in Abu Dhabi around seven months ago to join school this academic year, she said.

"Because of that she has not made any friends at school or outside.

"She is my daughter from my previous marriage and she had grown up with my parents in China,'' said Zhu, who arrived in the UAE 12 years ago and remarried more than a year ago.

She said her daughter's mobile remained switched off. By 9pm Zhu and her staff had started searching for her in the Tourist Club Area, near the beauty salon and some shopping malls without any success until midnight.

Started searching

Then she started searching near their apartment and learned from restaurant staff that she had been waiting there and was last seen taking a taxi around 12.30am, she said.

"We filed a police complaint late on Thursday and were following it up with them but there is no positive feedback yet," the couple said.

Abu Dhabi Police said they did not want to comment about the case at this stage.

"We have not slept since Thursday night as we were searching for her at all shopping malls and taxi companies but with no success," the couple said.

"She does not have money with her to eat food. She knows my mobile number by heart. I have been waiting for a call, but…" said Zhu in tears.