Police said on Monday that the parents were walking home through bushes near Giyani with the toddler and her four-year-old sister.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe said: “When they woke up at around 7pm, they found the two-year-old child missing and reported the matter to the police, who launched a search operation composed of the Provincial Search and Rescue Unit, Air Wing and the Lephalale Cluster K9 Unit until today, (Monday), with no success.”

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The child was wearing an orange T-shirt and orange trousers.

“Preliminary search progress have found the two-year-old’s possible foot prints a distance away from the missing point, teams are tracking the foot prints,” Ngoepe said.

Read: BREAKING NEWS: Body of missing girl found

In a separate case, police opened an inquest after an 8-year-old girl drowned in a swimming pool at a local holiday resort in Senwamokgope township.

Ngoepe said Tsholofelo Lekukela from Ga-Mohokong village in Bolobedu outside Tzaneen was on an outing with her school friends for a year-end celebration at the resort when she drowned in the pool on Saturday.

“There is no foul play suspected at this stage, police investigations continue,” he said.

– African News Agency