Latest: Authorities deploy drones in search for missing Elisha, 14

Latest: Extensive land and river searches are continuing for a 14-year-old girl who has been missing from Co. Tipperary since St. Patrick's Day.

Latest: Authorities deploy drones in search for missing Elisha, 14

Update - 1.42pm: Extensive land and river searches are continuing for a 14-year-old girl who has been missing from Co. Tipperary since St. Patrick's Day.

Elisha Gault from Carrick-on-Suir was last seen on Saturday night and was reported missing on Sunday morning.

Volunteers and civil defence teams have deployed drones to support various agencies, including the Coast Guard.

Superintendent Willie Leahy from Clonmel garda station said: "First and foremost I am appealing to Elisha that she make contact with ourselves in Clonmel or our colleagues in Carrick-On-Suir Garda stations, or a member of family, let us know that she's okay.

"Then I am appealing to her circle of friends, we've visited a lot of her friends in the last number of days, but in this social media age that we have with Instagram and Snapchat, in case we haven't been in contact with all of her friends I am appealing to them to contact us."

By Conor Kane

Dozens of emergency service personnel and volunteers have been drafted in to help search for missing teenager Elisha Gault, with concern growing for her welfare.

Gardaí have urged members of the public to check their property and for landowners to check their land for the 14-year-old from Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary.

She was spotted on Dillon Bridge at about 10.15pm on March 17, heading towards the Carrickbeg area on the Co Waterford side of the town.

She is about 5ft 10in to 6ft in height and has blue eyes and dyed blonde hair. Gardaí do not have details of what she was wearing that night but it is understood she did not have a jacket when last seen.

A number of boats, including the Carrick-on-Suir river rescue craft, Nenagh search and rescue, and Waterford river rescue, have been used to search along the river Suir for Elisha, while the Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter has also been in the area as well as Civil Defence and local volunteers.

Gardaí spent yesterday making door-to-door inquiries in the town in an attempt to obtain more details about her movements.

The teenager is a student at Comeragh College in Carrick and has been living on New St for over a year with her family.

It is understood her mother Gráinne is from Belfast, but lived for a time in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, and moved to Carrick over a year ago.

Gardaí said the family is very concerned about Elisha’s welfare. They have urged any friends or acquaintances to contact the Garda station in Clonmel or Carrick to leave their details.

They also want anyone in private houses in the Carrickbeg/Dillon Bridge area to check any CCTV footage they may have since the night of March 17 and to provide it to the gardaí, and anyone with gardens, outhouses or sheds to check them for any trace of the missing teenager.

Anyone with dash-cam footage from their vehicles from the night or early morning of March 17 and March 18 has also been asked to contact gardaí.

Both Elisha’s mother and sister have made separate appeals for her to come home. Her sister Bhrianna posted on Facebook: “If anyone knows anything please text me or my mum I really miss her.”

Her mother Gráinne thanked those who had been trying so hard to find her daughter.

“If you know of her whereabouts, please let her know, all we are concerned about is her safety, if she is well, let ourselves or the guards know and we can call off all the search efforts,” she wrote.

“Thank you to all of the people of Carrick, parents, teenagers, sending well wishes and going out in that frosty weather to look for her. Thank you to the local gardaí, River Rescue, Civil Defence and anyone else I’ve missed.

“Hug your kids that bit tighter tonight, appreciate what you have got.”

In a Facebook post uploaded to her page at 3.04am this morning, her mum pleaded with anyone who may know where her 14-year-old daughter is to tell her she will not be forced to come home.

The post adds: “Still no word.If you know of her whereabouts, tell her she isn't in trouble, she won't be forced to come home, if she doesn't want to.

“We just want to know she's safe and well and we can call off all the search efforts and that myself, her daddy and her 3 sisters love her very much, no matter what.”

This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.

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