Police are investigating the possibility that the child, Kata, may have been kidnapped for extortion.

Hundreds of volunteers are involved in the search effort in which sniffer dogs have also been deployed.

The girl went missing from an illegally occupied building, a former hotel, where her family and several others live.

The mother sounded the alarm after she came home from work and found the girl was not there.

Her uncle, who said he was keeping an eye on her, reported that she vanished in an instant.

ANSA