A BODY found in Malaysia has been confirmed to be that of missing teenager Nora Quoirin.
The 15-year-old's body was identified hours after it was discovered following a large-scale search operation.
The London teenager, who has special needs, disappeared from the jungle resort of Dusun on Sunday August 4, where she had been on holiday with her family.
The Lucie Blackman Trust, which is handling media for the Quoirin family, confirmed "with great sadness that the body found today is that of missing teenager Nora Quoirin. Local police have confirmed identification."
The trust added that the teenager's family would not immediately be making any statement, and asked that their privacy be respected "at this awful time".
Earlier national deputy police chief Mazlan Mansor told reporters at a press conference the body had been found beside a small stream about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 miles) from the resort, by volunteers who were helping the search team.
He said the remains had been winched by helicopter to a hospital mortuary, where her family were due to identify her.
He added that the body "was not in any clothings" and said while it remained a missing persons case police were looking into all possibilities including the "angle of criminal investigation".
Nora's mother made a heartfelt appeal on Monday to find her as a £10,000 reward - donated by an anonymous Belfast business - was offered for information leading to her safe return.
The teenager's parents, Meabh and Sebastien Quoirin, a French-Irish couple who have lived in London for 20 years, thanked those looking for her as fundraising pages set up by Nora's aunt and uncle collected more than £100,000 from well-wishers.
Following news that a body had been discovered Simon Coveney, Ireland's deputy prime minister and foreign minister described it as a "harrowing" time.
Irish + French embassies in Malaysia working together to provide every assistance to the Quoirin family. Irish embassy is in touch with Malaysian authorities on today’s discovery of a body. At this harrowing time all of our thoughts + prayers are with the family.
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) August 13, 2019
Volunteer hikers and even reportedly a shaman were among those taking part in the search for Nora, who was born with the brain defect holoprosencephaly.
The Quoirins had said Nora's condition meant she was not independent and had difficulty walking.
Appearing in front of the cameras on Monday, a visibly emotional Quoirin said: "Nora is our first child.
"She has been vulnerable since the day she was born.
"She is so precious to us and our hearts are breaking."
On Monday morning, a total of 348 personnel were deployed in the search operation, according to Malaysia's Malay Mail newspaper.
Previously, search crews looking for Nora played her mother's voice in the dense Malaysian forest near where she disappeared.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here