‘Locked up somewhere’: Concerns for welfare of 12yo autistic boy who ran away from home during storm in Spain

A desperate search is ongoing for a 12-year-old boy with autism who fled his home during a violent storm in north-east Spain at the beginning of the month.

The boy, Rami, was last seen by family in his Granollers home near Barcelona on October 4, when severe storms battered the area causing flooding and damage.

His mother Faouzia Benouizi says the sheer scale of the storm terrified her son into running away during the night, into the pouring rain.

A 10-day search by Catalan authorities has not revealed any signs of the young boy, but his mother is still holding out hope of finding Rami alive, no matter the circumstances.

“I think my son is locked up somewhere with someone, I am sure of it, that is what my heart tells me,” she told Spanish broadcaster Antena 3.

Rami’s family believe that due to his autism, Rami was a target for kidnapping on the dark night he escaped.

His uncle Youssef Benouizi said the family believes a stranger may have pulled over and picked him up in a vehicle after he fled the house.

“We think he got into a car because he is a vulnerable child and anyone who says to him ‘get in’, he is going to get in,” he said.

Regional police say Rami was likely disorientated when he ran into the storm and despite his family’s insistence on the possibility of a kidnapping, a search is focusing on rivers and water basins that became flooded by the storm.

Search teams are combing through a 77sqkm zone of rivers and dense riverbank vegetation, and have also scoured the area around a hotel where reports of someone matching Rami’s appearance was last seen.

Rami is described as tall for his age at around 170cm, of solid build, with a dark complexion and curly hair.

He was wearing a turquoise t-shirt and orange sport shorts on the night he went missing.

Local police have urged the public to contact them with any information of Rami’s whereabouts.