The Garda has launched an appeal for information about missing English boy Ben Needham following an anonymous note that suggested he had been abducted and brought to Ireland.
It is the latest in a long line of tip-offs since Ben, then a toddler, went missing from the island of Kos in Greece in July 1991.
According to the Garda, the information was passed to the makers of a Greek TV programme in Athens on May 15th. The note was written in Greek and said "Little Ben is in Ireland, he was abducted by British tourists". Attached to it was a photograph of a young blond boy.
Supt John Farrelly of the Garda Press Office said the information was being treated seriously despite the fact the photograph shows a boy aged only about five or six. Ben, who disappeared when he was 21 months old, would now be nine.
"We are hoping that with the pictures in newspapers and on television a member of the public may recognise the child in the photo and be able to help us with our inquiries . . . we hope we can locate the child and bring the matter to a conclusion," he said.
The latest information regarding the case was received in Greece last May but it is only in recent weeks that the Garda has been asked to act on it by Interpol, the international police agency. A spokeswoman for the agency said the information had been checked in order to avoid sending the Irish public on "a wild goose chase".
The spokeswoman added Interpol had now established there was "a possibility" the child in the picture may be Ben Needham and the matter was now being handled by the Garda.
In Sheffield, where the Needham family live the officer who has led the case since 1991, Det Sgt Malcolm Silk of South Yorkshire Police, said he had heard about the latest development only yesterday morning.
"The gardai are doing an excellent job in contacting all the officers and issuing press releases on the matter," he said. The sightings of Ben since he disappeared on July 24th 1991 have been in their hundreds, he added. He had been seen in the US, Turkey, Germany and several places in Greece. This is understood to be the first sighting of the missing boy in the Republic.
At one stage a reward of £500,000 was offered by an anonymous donor for the safe recovery of Ben.