A child answering Esti's description has been seen twice in Nice

Aneta Clayton's trip follows a possible second sighting of Esti and her father Simon in Nice, by a woman from Hertfordshire on 11 May.

Esti Clayton, from Brecon - whose full name is Estelle - has not been seen since she went to stay with her father Simon on 9 April.

A child matching Esti's description and holding a ferret - similar to the one that Esti kept as a pet - was seen at a market in Nice on 9 May.

An officer from Dyfed-Powys Police has gone to France with Mrs Clayton to provide support and to liaise with French police.

The second sighting was very close to where Esti was first allegedy seen two days previously.

Police said it was "the strongest signal yet" that Esti and her father were in the Nice area.

Aneta Clayton: She hopes Esti will be found in Nice

The woman who reported the second sighting had spent some time in Nice, and saw a piece about the search for Esti on television when she returned to the UK.

Aneta Clayton has been interviewed by French newspaper journalists as efforts to find the child are stepped up.

Sarah Clark is the editor of the Riviera Gazette - an English-language paper serving the ex-patriate community in and around Nice - and is trying to publicise the search for Esti.

"We're a weekly paper and we come out every Thursday, so we've put a copy of the poster that police are circulating with pictures of Esti and the van that they're travelling in in this week's edition" she said.

We tried to talk to the police in Nice, but they didn't seem to know much about it Sarah Clark from the Riviera Gazette

She has also asked her readers to let the paper know if they see anything.

"We have a good e-mail contact list of people in the area, and last night we sent out a notification by e mail and put a copy of Esti's poster on our website." she said.

"We tried to talk to the police in Nice, but they didn't seem to know much about it."

Simon Clayton, from Hay-on-Wye, left a note saying he was taking Esti on a three-week holiday - police suspect he may have abducted her to avoid a custody hearing.

Anyone with any information is urged to contact the incident room at Brecon on 01874 622 331.