Aadil Umair Rahim, a six year old student from Nottingham, went missing for nine hours at the Newport Pagnall services on Friday, January 17th. The child was on a school trip which had been to London and had stopped at the services for a comfort break. At first, it was thought the schoolboy was hiding in the service station, but when initial efforts to find him proved fruitless, the alarm was raised.
Buckinghamshire Search and Rescue's Al Goffey said "it was a very cold Friday night", with temperatures falling to 1C, and "there was a lot of concern for his safety and wellbeing".
Search-and-rescue teams from four regions deployed 54 searchers, three dogs, and a boat to search for the student. A National Police Air Service (NPAS) helicopter also joined the search for the boy. Police released a CCTV image showing Aadil running towards a car park at the services and officers were helped by members of the public who searched the nearby streets of Newport Pagnell.
Mr Goffey said the boy had "managed to walk up through some fields" and was finally found, close to a footbridge near roadworks just off the northbound carriageway of the M1, at about 04:15. He was sitting on a box, wearing just a jumper to protect him from the cold,
Supt Amy Clements described the search as "a challenging operation in difficult circumstances", and added that "the community response was immense. This was a large operation in difficult conditions so I'd like to also publicly thank the search and rescue teams who assisted in the search and the large number of officers involved, including the National Police Air Service which helped bring this positive resolution."
Aadil's father Umair, said he was grateful to the emergency services, and "those members of [the] public who sacrificed their evening to assist with the search for our son. There was more then a 1000 people looking for him I'm thankful to everyone."
