British girl, seven, missing after being swept out to sea while sitting on rocks with her family in Morocco

A young British girl who was dragged into the sea while sitting on the rocks with her family in Morocco is missing.

Seven-year-old Inaayah Makda, from Blackburn, went missing last night as she sat on the beach near Casablanca watching the sun set on the first day of a week-long holiday to the North African country with her family.

The family was surrounded by water as they stood on rocks before being toppled over by a strange wave. Some relatives also managed to return despite falling into the sea.

His father Zubair told Blackburn-based broadcaster UCTV: ‘We were in a very bad situation [that] It was half a meter high. The tide suddenly washed everyone out.

‘Inaayah was on the rock behind me. We drifted to the right, and he drifted to the left. I didn’t see where Inaayah was because she was swept away so quickly.

‘I couldn’t find him at all. We’re trying to get help because the police here are… useless. “They don’t do anything.”

A family member told BBC Zubair and Inaayah’s mother said Tasneem spent hours shouting his name and searching for him along the beach.

A relative told the broadcaster that when the family first arrived at shore the tide seemed far away, but it came in about 20 minutes and surprised them.

A neighbor of the family said Inaayah, a pupil at Roe Lee Park Primary School in the Lancashire town, was a ‘lovely, cheerful, cheeky little girl’.

Several members of his family were also swept into the water with him, but they managed to return (file image of Moroccan beach)

She said the young girl is her parents’ only child and is ‘their whole world’, adding: ‘We’re all just in shock, we’re devastated.’

The family criticized local authorities for not doing enough to find him.

A family member in England said: Lancashire Telegraph: ‘We’re all really worried. You can understand that this is really sad for everyone.

‘We asked for help but no support came.

‘The support we received from local authorities in Morocco can only be described as inhumane. The family there walks up and down the beach conducting their own searches. These were ignored.

The family member told the local newspaper that his relatives were not warned about the dangers of walking on the cliffs outside the historic town, which sits on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

He claimed that Moroccan officials told his family to ‘wait for the body to be washed’.

He said: ‘Since then there has been zero support, in fact they have been told it is too difficult to get out to sea and they will have to wait for the body to reach the sea.’

The family is said to have hired a private search operator with a helicopter to help find the young girl.

Blackburn MP Adnan Hussain said in a social media post today: ‘I am deeply saddened by the news that seven-year-old Inaayah from Blackburn was swept away by a wave while on holiday in Casablanca. My thoughts and prayers are with his family during this unimaginably painful time.

‘The whole community in Blackburn is keeping Inaayah and her loved ones in their prayers and I will continue to do all I can to support the family during this devastating time.’

The independent MP said he had discussed the issue with the UK’s foreign office and would be ‘directly liaising’ with Morocco’s ambassador soon.

A spokesperson for the UK foreign office told the Daily Mail: ‘We are supporting the family of a British national reported missing in Morocco and are in contact with local authorities.’