A Sundimbili family’s prayers were answered this morning, when their young daughter was found after she went missing at midday on Monday.

The young girl (2) was reportedly playing with a group of friends but never returned home on Monday afternoon.

The area in Sundimbili (north of Mandeni) where the disappearance happened is deeply rural and initial search efforts from community members were fruitless, said IPSS Medical Rescue spokesperson, Paul Herbst.

“Local Saps were notified on Tuesday and together with the Umhlali K9 search and rescue team, IPSS members went to try and find the young girl,” he said.

On Tuesday night, when the teams arrived at Sundimbili police station, contact could not be made with the complainant, so the search had to be called off until this morning.

When the teams arrived early this morning, they discovered that the young girl had just been found by community members, around 600m from where she went missing, said Sgt. Clinton Odayar of the Umhlali K9 unit.

“She was in a very isolated, dense bush area which would have made it difficult to see her,” said Odayar.

The girl was dehydrated but otherwise unharmed when paramedics arrived, she was taken to hospital as a precaution.