Texas police search for girl, 3, last seen at playground

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Police in San Antonio are searching Wednesday for a 3-year-old girl who was last seen two days earlier at an apartment complex playground.

Authorities don’t yet know whether Lina Sardar Khil wandered away from the playground or if she was taken by someone, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said.

The child was last seen between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Monday at the playground within a gated apartment complex. According to police, Lina was at the playground with her mother, who had walked away briefly. The child was missing when her mother returned, McManus said.

The family moved to the U.S. in 2019 from Afghanistan after fleeing from “threats that were posed to us,” Lina’s father, Riaz Sardar Khil, told San Antonio TV station KENS.

The child’s father told the TV station that the family initially thought Lina may have left the playground with another Afghan family but now believes she may have been abducted.

“During our entire lives we have not been as saddened as we were yesterday and today,” Khil told the TV station Tuesday, speaking through a translator.

Lina was last seen wearing a red dress, black jacket and black shoes and had her brown hair in a ponytail, police said.