Police in three countries are searching for six-year-old twin sisters from Switzerland. They were abducted by their dad, who killed himself on Thursday night.
Italian, French and Swiss police are now on the pursue for the young blond girls – whose father threw himself in front of a coach in southern Italy.
The girls, who live with their mother in Saint-Sulpice near Lausanne, were visiting with their father last weekend. But rather than bringing them to school on Monday as intended, he sent his separated wife a text message saying that she should not worry.
As the Italian media reported on Sunday, the 43-year-old Canadian-born man had also sent his wife a note from Marseille, saying that he could not survive without her.
He reportedly withdrew more than €7,000 from cash points there. Police in canton Vaud said on Sunday that the man had possibly taken his children to the island of Corsica before heading for Italy.
He and his daughters were seen at a Marseille travel agency, where the man bought three tickets to Corsica.
When the man committed suicide on the train tracks in Cerignola near Foggia in Italy, he was having just €100 and there was no sign of his daughters.
However, he did leave a will in Switzerland. The mother of the twins is a 44-year-old Italian who has been living in Switzerland for three years.
According to the Italian police, the girls have been seen in northern Italy with a dark-haired woman. It is uncertain who she was or where they went.
Helicopters, dogs and rescue workers are now searching the area for traces of the girls.
