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Authorities Searching for American Teen, 14, Who Went Missing After Leaving Cruise Ship in Germany

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Authorities Searching for American Teen, 14, Who Went Missing After Leaving Cruise Ship in Germany

Authorities are searching for an American teenager who went missing after disembarking from a cruise ship in Germany.

Rostock Police in Germany said Aydin Brown, 14, was last seen at around 7 a.m. on Thursday, July 4, after disembarking from a Caribbean Princess cruise ship, according to Fox News, NBC News and The New York Post

The cruise ship had docked in Rostock-Warnemünde, a German port town on the Baltic Sea located about 150 miles north of Berlin, police told the outlets. Authorities said the teen, described as 5’7 with long dark hair, got off at the stop wearing a dark jacket, dark pants and retro shoes, per NBC News.

Princess Cruises told Fox News and NBC News in a statement that it is “collaborating with German law enforcement on a missing person’s case” involving the teen, who “disembarked from the Caribbean Princess in Warnemünde on Thursday morning without an escort.”

“We understand the distress this situation has caused and will continue to provide ongoing onsite support to the family during this challenging time,” the cruise line said, noting it had offered to fly Aydin’s mother to Germany to aid in the search for her son.

Princess Cruises did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, and a contact for Rostock Police was not immediately made available.

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Aydin had reportedly been traveling with his grandmother on the cruise ship before he disappeared, according to Fox News. The outlet reported that authorities learned that Aydin and his grandmother had gotten into an argument before he left the ship.

A woman named Katie Brown, who identified herself as Aydin’s mother, shared in a Facebook post on a missing person’s group that Aydin is from Texas and had been wearing a gray jacket with “headphones” and a “black backpack with [an] Amazon logo” when he left the cruise ship.

Katie later shared in an update that “he was spotted by camera with an unknown person” at a “train station,” and that camera footage at the station was “being investigated.”

Anne Yaktiyol, a cousin of Aydin’s, said in a social media post, per The New York Post, that Aydin’s family believes he may have been coaxed away by a stranger.

“Aydin remains missing. It appears once he left the ship in Warnemunde, Germany, he may have been lured away,” she wrote in the post.

NBC News reported that police are looking for that second person, whom police described as someone between the ages of 20 and 25, and whom Aydin was seen with at around 7:30 a.m. at the train station in Warnemünde the same day he disappeared.

A guest onboard the cruise ship told NBC News that the “mood” on the ship is “still upbeat” as it continues to make its way through various stops across Europe, though the guest also noted that passengers “feel extremely sorry for the family.”

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