DUBAI // Police have appealed for help in finding a grandfather who has not been seen since he went shopping at a Dubai mall two weeks ago. Nabil Mohammed, 65, an Egyptian national on holiday with his family, went missing in Deira City Centre Mall at around midday on Sept 16. Mr Mohammed was shopping with his wife and sisters-in-law and was left alone when the women entered the mall's public lavatory together. When they came out he had vanished.
"It appears that the missing man got tired of waiting around for his family and decided to head back to Ajman on his own," a Dubai Police spokesman said. "From there, his disappearance remains a mystery. He probably became dehydrated and got lost trying to find a taxi outside the mall. He could have got into the wrong car." The police say they are treating his disappearance as "suspicious" because Mr Mohammed has no history of mental illness.
As soon as the family realised Mr Mohammed was missing they contacted security guards and reviewed surveillance footage shot by closed-circuit television cameras. "Footage showed the man wandering around, but then he is lost. He must have stepped outside and got lost," said the spokesman. Police describe Mr Mohammed as "a dark-skinned man of average height, with a short moustachioed beard, wearing a shirt and colourful trousers".
He and his wife had been staying with their daughter in Ajman. Since his disappearance, relatives have been searching in and around the shopping centre area and in Sharjah and Ajman, the spokesman added. Police have appealed for help in finding Mr Mohammed and have issued a hotline number for the public to call: 04 606 5555/04 266 0555. shafez@thenational.ae
