Rennes: British and French authorities were racing against the clock on Friday to find a five-year-boy with a brain tumour who officials in France believe was “kidnapped” from hospital by his family.
Ashya King’s parents took him from a hospital in Southampton, southern England, on Thursday without doctors’ consent and boarded a ferry to the French port of Cherbourg the same day, a British police spokesman said.
The spokesman said the boy’s life was at “substantial risk” as he needed constant medical care following recent surgery, adding that he was likely to be in a wheelchair or buggy as he cannot move.
His health will deteriorate rapidly as the battery on his feeding system runs out later, police said.
“We are working with our counterparts in France to activate their emergency child rescue alert procedures,” he said.
Eric Bouillard, a prosecutor in Cherbourg, told AFP: “We believe he was kidnapped given the circumstances of his departure from hospital as relayed to us by the British.”
“For the moment, what we most want to do is contact the family,” added Bouillard.
Ashya’s brother Naveed King on his profile on the photo blogging platform Instagram describes himself as a Jehovah’s Witness.
Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse blood transfusions on religious grounds but are open to other medical procedures.
Bouillard said: “Even if we cannot treat children against their parents’ wishes — this is a difficulty we have in particular with Jehovah’s Witnesses — we just want to contact them to try and see what happened.”
French authorities told AFP the family arrived on Thursday night with their seven children and were driving a grey Hyundai registered KP60 HWK.
It was unclear what motivated the family to take the boy away.
A BBC report said that parents have the right to remove their children from hospital unless they are prevented from doing so by a court order.
If doctors are concerned that parents intend to remove a child, deny it the medical treatment it needs, and expose it to the risk of serious harm, they can seek a court order. The report added that once an order is in place, any parent who removes their child in breach of the order is committing a contempt of court for which they could be imprisoned.
