Nora Quoirin: £10,000 reward offered in search for missing teen

Nora Quoirin, 15, who has special needs, vanished from a holiday resort more than a week ago

A £10,000 reward has been offered to help find a vulnerable teenager who is missing in Malaysia, after her family raised more than £100,000.

Some 350 people are taking part in the search for 15-year-old Nora Quoirin, who disappeared from her room at the Dusan resort on 4 August.

Announcing the reward, Nora's family said: "Our hearts are breaking."

Police are treating it as a missing persons case but the family believe she may have been abducted.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Met Police have joined Irish and French police in providing support to authorities in Malaysia.

Che Zakaria Othman, deputy police chief of Negeri Sembilan state, said search teams remained "committed to finding her", with the operation having expanded to include the slopes of a nearby mountain.

Personnel have described conditions in the jungle as "difficult", with the weather hot and muggy.

About 350 people are taking part in the search for Nora

Nora's family announced the reward of 50,000 Malaysian ringgit had been donated by an anonymous Belfast-based business.

"Nora is our first child. She has been vulnerable since the day she was born. She is so precious to us and our hearts are breaking," they said.

Praising the efforts of police carrying out the search, they said they had decided to offer the reward "to help their investigation".

According to the Malaysian Department of Statistics, most households based in the region earn an average of 4,500 ringgit per month, meaning the reward is more than 10 times the average monthly income.

More than £94,000 has been donated on a page set up by Nora's aunt, while another site set up by her uncle to allow people to donate in euros has raised more than €16,000 (£15,000).

The money is intended to cover expenses incurred by the family while the operation continues.

The Quoirins, an Irish-French family who have lived in London for 20 years, arrived at the Dusun forest eco-resort in southern Negeri Sembilan state on 3 August.

Nora, whose mother Meabh is from Belfast, was discovered missing from her room the following morning and a window in the family's apartment was found open.

The teenager was born with holoprosencephaly, a disorder which affects brain development, meaning her communication is limited and she struggles with co-ordination.

Her family have said she is "not independent and does not go anywhere alone".

Shamans, known in Malaysia as bomoh, have been involved in the search effort

Jim Gamble, a former chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre who has been in touch with the family almost daily, said they were "living everybody's worst nightmare".

"The longer this goes on, the harder it is to retain hope," he said.

Malaysian police have set up a hotline - 0111 2285058 - to give information to help the search.

Missing persons charity the Lucie Blackman Trust has also provided a phone number and an email address - [phone] or email [e-mail].

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