Malaysian police have said they are not ruling out a "criminal element" after fingerprints were found in a forest resort where a 15-year-old London girl was reported missing.
Officers searching for Nora Quoirin initially said there were no signs of foul play over her disappearance from the Dusun eco-resort in southern Negeri Sembilan state on Sunday morning.
But deputy police chief Che Zakaria Othman said on Wednesday that a police forensic team was analysing fingerprints found in the resort.
He declined to give any further details, but said investigators are "not ruling out any possibility", including a criminal element.
He added that the case is still classified as a missing persons inquiry.
Nora's family, who discovered the teenager missing from her bedroom with the window left open on Sunday, have said they believe she has been abducted.
They said they had "no reason to believe she wandered off and is lost".
In a statement released on Tuesday, they added: "Nora's family believe she has been abducted.
"We are especially worried because Nora has learning and developmental disabilities, and is not like other 15-year-olds.
"She looks younger, she is not capable of taking care of herself, and she won't understand what is going on.
"She never goes anywhere by herself. We have no reason to believe she wandered off and is lost."
Nora's distraught uncle told the Standard relatives are losing hope about her safe return.
Francois Vauquois said: “Both abduction and ‘vanishing’ hypothesis are considered but Nora’s parents are convinced she couldn’t have left on her own. I have to say we are very pessimistic now.”
Police have expanded the search for Nora, with more than 160 personnel now looking for the teenager, who has special needs, local media reported.
Those searching dense jungle and hilly terrain on foot and by helicopter include police, the fire and rescue services department, civil defence and the forestry department, Malaysia's The Star reports.
Sniffer dogs are also being used in the search for Nora, who is the daughter of an Irish-French couple who have lived in London for about 20 years.
Police said local indigenous people - known as Orang Asli - are also helping with the search.
Negeri Sembilan police chief Mohamad Mat Yusop told a press conference on Tuesday that there was no evidence Nora had been abducted.
"We have no clues, no evidence to say this case is abduction," the police chief said. "We will do our very best. We will not give up hope. We believe that she didn't go far and that she had lost her way."
He said that sniffer dogs had picked up the teenager's scent within 100 metres from her resort bedroom but the trail stopped there.
He added the girl's mother had reported that she was only in her undergarments when they put her to bed but it was unclear if she was dressed when she disappeared because nobody saw her leave.
Villagers who joined in the search expressed concern over Nora's fate.
"This particular jungle, for outsiders, they don't know how to navigate, they get lost. Natives like me, we are used to this jungle," said Bali anak Akau.
Haanim Bamadhaj, a resort spokesman, said the Dusun management is baffled by Nora's disappearance.
