An eight-year-old from Oldenburg who has been missing for eight days has been found alive in a gully.
This was announced by the police of the Lower Saxony city via Twitter.
The mentally challenged boy, named Joe, was last seen on June 17.
"8-year-old Joe is alive," read the tweet on Saturday morning.
“He was just found in a gully in Oldenburg.
He is currently being taken to a hospital and treated there.”
The search for the child kept not only the police, fire brigade and rescue workers in suspense for days.
The city community was concerned.
Many volunteers set out on a search in an organized manner or individually.
Companies and associations shared the search calls.
On the seventh day of the disappearance, the police also set up a murder commission.
The assumption that the boy was deliberately hiding had become obsolete, it said.
Instead, a witness gave evidence that Joe may have fallen victim to a crime.
Investigated against unknown.
The special police organization for the search remains in place, it said in a statement.
However, the homicide squad has other legal options in its investigations, for example when backing up data.
The boy had disappeared in the Donnerschlee district of Oldenburg, where there used to be barracks.
But intensive searches were also carried out in other parts of the university town on the Hunte.
Villages, lakes and forests in the neighboring district of Ammerland were also searched.