POLICE in Queensland, Australia, are blaming a hoax caller for causing a state wide search for three young Dubliners who re established contact with their families in Dublin yesterday.
The search for Ms Sandra Mahon, Mr Stuart Gamble and Mr Neil Hewson, all 25 years old, began after Sandra's father received a distressed call from a person he thought was his daughter late on Saturday evening.
The call, which lasted only five seconds, indicated to, Mr Mahon that his, daughter was in some sort of difficulty and he immediately contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Ms Mahon had earlier spoken to her father and informed him that she and her companions were in Cairns, a town in northern Queensland.
However, following an intense police search and widespread media coverage in Queensland, Mr Hewson yesterday rang his Father, Brian, in Dublin, and within minutes Ms Mahon telephoned her father.
Mr Mahon immediately contacted police in Cairns with the news that the young people were safe and the search could be called off. He said his daughter and her companions would get in touch with the Cairns police.
The police spokesman in Cairns said Ms Mahon told her father she had not made a second telephone call to Ireland last Saturday night, and it had to be assumed that the second call to the Mahon home was a hoax or a wrong number.
"Our information is that the call lasted only a few seconds and the caller, who Mr Mahon, assumed was his daughter, indicated that something, untoward had happened, he said. It was clearly a hoax which caused a great deal of anxiety.
Late yesterday, Cairns police said Ms Mahon and her companions had been interviewed by the police, who were satisfied they had nothing to do with the hoax call which sparked off the search.
Meanwhile in Sydney the police have intensified their search for a missing Dubliner, Mr Gerard Mooney (35), who has been missing from his apartment since May 14th last.
His sister, Vera, travelled to Sydney at the request of the local police to, help with the search and to identify what is missing from his flat, where he left virtually all his belongings except a rucksack and his wallet.
She said yesterday she was concerned that Gerard's bicycle was found close to the flat where he lived because he was an accomplished cyclist and used it to travel through the countryside.