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Hunt for missing Swiss twins intensifies

08 February 2011 00:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. An international police search is continuing for two Swiss six-year-old twin girls, missing since their father threw himself under a train on Friday, APA reports quoting BBC.
Alessia and Livia were taken by Canadian-born Matthias Schepp from his wife’s home on 30 January.
Schepp travelled to France and then Italy, apparently committing suicide in the south of the country.
Some 40 Swiss police investigators, along with French and Italian police, are taking part in the hunt.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the last verified sighting of the three was at the French port of Marseille.
Italian newspapers report that Mr Schepp purchased three tickets for a ferry travelling from the port city to Propriano, in Corsica.
However, Swiss police have said the last and only confirmed sighting of the trio was on 30 January near St Suplice, Switzerland.
There are also reports that a last will and testament was found at the St Suplice house where Mr Schepp had been living since his estrangement from his wife. According to Italian newspapers, he left everything to her and his daughters.
Mr Schepp had sent his estranged wife a letter from Marseille, saying he was desperate and could not live without her, Italy’s Ansa news agency reports. It is unclear whether or not he subsequently boarded the ferry with his daughters.
Police were searching Lake Geneva by helicopter, AP reports, while Italian news agencies said special underwater cameras were being used to look for the missing girls.
The cameras allow filming to take place several metres underwater and are being used to search wells and water tanks in and around Cerignola Campagna, in Puglia, where the body of Matthias Schepp was found on train tracks.