Gardaí from Crookstown and Macroom in Co Cork, backed up by members of the Civil Defence and up to 50 local farmers, spent the weekend searching the area for a missing 11-year-old girl.
The Garda Air Support helicopter also assisted in the search on Saturday and again yesterday afternoon.
Gardaí have appealed to the public for assistance in tracing the girl, who has been missing from her home in mid-Cork since late on Friday night and who may have travelled to west Cork.
Catherine O'Driscoll - a member of the Travelling community - was last seen by her family when she left her parents' caravan at their encampment in Pullerick, Crookstown, at around 11.30 p.m. to go to the caravan she shared with her siblings.
When she failed to show up, one of her siblings raised the alarm on Saturday morning and her parents contacted the Gardaí. An extensive search of the Crookstown and Newcestown areas of mid-Cork took place during the weekend.
Gardaí are satisfied that a girl fitting Catherine's description called to a farmhouse in Bengour, Crookstown, about 8.10 a.m. on Saturday and a girl fitting her description was spotted hitching on the Crookstown to Bantry road, near Bengour, at 2 p.m. She may have hitched a lift to Bantry or Dunmanway .
Catherine is described as being 4 ft 11 in tall, of thin build with blue eyes and shoulder-length blond hair and when last seen, she was wearing a navy trousers, brown shoes and a brown "hoodie" type top.
Meanwhile, gardaí in Tallaght, Co Dublin, are renewing their appeal for assistance in helping to trace the whereabouts of a 12-year-old Romanian, Pansela Demitru, who has been missing since May 15th. She is 5 ft tall with long brown hair, brown eyes and dark complexion. She was wearing a grey skirt and a blue shirt. She was last seen in Tallaght village, where she took a bus to the city centre.
Gardaí are particularly anxious to talk to two taxi-drivers, who drove Pansela and other Romanians on the day she disappeared.
