Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Fran­tic rel­a­tives of six-year-old Gabriel­la Mar­cano are fear­ing the worst af­ter the child dis­ap­peared yes­ter­day af­ter­noon while play­ing in the wa­ter at Moru­ga beach. Up to late last evening Coast Guard of­fi­cers and po­lice were comb­ing the beach in search for Mar­cano. The child is a first-year pupil at Anstey Memo­r­i­al Girls' Pri­ma­ry School, Dray­ton Street, San Fer­nan­do.

Po­lice re­ports say she went to the beach with her par­ents, Kel­ly Mar­cano and Shawn Matthews, of 39 La­dy­bird Cres­cent, Pleas­antville, and oth­er rel­a­tives. The child was play­ing in the wa­ter with oth­er chil­dren, but around 3.20pm her par­ents re­alised she was miss­ing. Coast Guard pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer Lt Kirk Jean-Bap­tiste said the Coast Guard was told about a pos­si­ble drown­ing in­ci­dent and dis­patched divers.

Jean-Bap­tiste said if she was not found yes­ter­day, divers would be­gin search­ing at first light to­day.