Police are searching with a large contingent
Children disappear on the way to soccer training
Updated February 24, 2026 – 11:26 amReading time: 2 min.
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In the afternoon two children want to play sports: the route is short, but the two cousins never get there. The police used a helicopter to search for the two at night.
Large-scale operation in the Cloppenburg district of Lower Saxony: Numerous patrol cars and a helicopter searched for two missing boys on Tuesday night. As a police spokesman told t-online, civilian police cars were now in use on Tuesday morning. A sniffer dog is also on its way to the 14,000-inhabitant community of Barßel to look for the children.
Nine-year-old Amir and ten-year-old Nawid were last seen on Monday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. The cousins wanted to go together from the group home where they live to the nearby soccer training facility. The route there is about a kilometer long. But the two boys never got involved in sports, according to police.
According to the investigations so far, the police do not believe that the boys could have been victims of a violent crime. As part of the further search for missing persons, family backgrounds will also be investigated, said the police spokesman.
After the children disappeared, employees of the living group first checked various contact addresses and contact options. After this was unsuccessful, the police were informed.
According to police, both boys have short brown hair and brown eyes. According to police, the ten-year-old was wearing, among other things, a dark jacket and a yellow high-visibility vest. His younger cousin was wearing a silver or gray jacket and also a high-visibility vest.