Amber Alert for missing boy, 9

The police has issued an Amber Alert for a missing 9-year old boy from Amsterdam-Osdorp. The boy is called Pedro and was last seen at 8 a.m. on Monday when he went to school.

It seems he never made it to school, and wasn't home at 4:30 p.m.  A spokesperson for the police said this is a very worrying situation. According to him, all measures are being taken to find the boy, though police are currently still in the dark about where Pedro could be.

Earlier in the evening, the police issued an announcement from Burgernet, but this didn't return any information that could lead to the boy. "That's why we issued an Amber Alert."

Pedro is wearing a blue nylon jacket, blue jeans, blue Nike-shoes and a blue backpack. He has a blue Gazelle bicycle. Pedro was born in 2004, is 143 cm tall, and has brown hair. The police is urgently asking anybody with any information to call 0800-6070.

This is the 18th time that the Amber Alert warning system has been issued since it was introduced on the 11th of November 2008, when then-minister of Justice Ernst Hirsch Ballin officially received the system.

Amber Alerts are issued when a child goes missing. The issue does have to meet several demands. There must be a direct danger posed to the life of the child, or threat of serious injury. There must also be information about the victim, a possible kidnapper or details about a car that was used, so that an Amber Alert can increase the chances that the child can be traced.

In 75 percent of all the alert cases, the child is found thanks to the tips that come in. Research last year shows that almost everyone in the Netherlands (95 percent) can recognize the warning system.

Around two million people have subscribed to Amber Alert reports. On Monday, 175,000 people were warned because it was a so-called night alert.