Search Intensifies for Missing Paris Teen with Developmental Disorder

Aged 14, Mehdi Ryad Toukali who was wearing a "black tracksuit, a sleeveless jacket and black and green Nike TN sneakers", left his home in the Vallée aux Renards, in Fresnes (Val-de-Marne) without leaving the slightest trace, reports the newspaper Le Parisien.

His parents, who have started searching to try to find him, do not hide their concern, especially since "the teenager suffers from a pervasive developmental disorder," the newspaper specifies. "Even though he’s 14, he thinks like an 8-year-old child and is very impressionable," says Nassima Toukali, Mehdi’s aunt.

The mother, Akila Toukali, who was resting on the morning of the disappearance, could not suspect anything, as she thought the teenager was playing outside: "I started to worry in the early afternoon. With my family we started searching the city." In despair, she reported the disappearance to the police station in L’Haÿ-les-Roses, around 8 p.m.

Later, a young man indicated to the family that he had seen Mehdi "on the bus going towards the Croix-de-Berny RER B station, in Antony." The teenager would have wanted to go to Paris. "It’s the first time he’s done this. We are vigilant, I don’t understand where he could have gone, he doesn’t know anyone in Paris," observes his mother, Akila Toukali.

Visibly exhausted by the search, the Toukali family, who do not intend to give up, have posted the missing person’s photo everywhere, hoping that information will reach them.

Update of November 3: the young Mehdi has been found.