Police in Canada have issued a rare rebuke to the public after a late-night emergency mobile phone alert about an abducted child prompted widespread complaints. At 11.36pm on Thursday night, police in Ontario issued an amber alert for Riya Rajkumar, 11, after police feared the girl’s father had kidnapped her.

Shortly after the alert was issued, police found her body, but they said that calls from the public helped them locate and arrest her father, Roopesh Rajkumar. A second alert was sent at 12.21am, saying Riya had been located.

But police say they received a barrage of angry calls, as Ontario residents complained that the alert was issued too late at night. “I can’t even begin to describe how disappointing and upsetting it is to read the comments, emails and calls to our communications bureau complaining about receiving an mber alert late at night,” tweeted Constable Akhil Mooken, a spokesperson for Peel regional police. “I appreciate that a lot of people were sleeping but the immediate need to locate the child outweighed the momentary inconvenience that some people encountered.”(theguardian)…[+]