US kids missing in Mexico

Two US siblings have gone missing in northern Mexico just weeks after four American adults were kidnapped across the border, according to the US State Department.

The District Attorney’s Office for the Mexican state of Nuevo León on Monday issued an Amber Alert for 9-year-old Hugo Yarset Monfort Luna and his 16year-old sister, Aranza Yosemiti Monfort Luna, Fox News reported. Both children were reported as US citizens in the alert.

The siblings were last seen Friday leaving a home in Real de San Felipe, a neighborhood in the municipality of García, outside the city of Monterrey and about 160 miles southwest of the Texas border.

“Because of the circumstances of their disappearance, age and the time passed, the missing minors could find themselves in imminent danger,” the alert said in Spanish.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said Tuesday that officials were aware of the reports but would not comment further due to “privacy considerations.”

Mexican prosecutors described the boy as 3-foot-6 with dark, straight brown hair and dark brown eyes with a missing tooth on the right side of his mouth.

His sister is described as 5-foot-2 with dark brown hair and a brown spot on her right cheek. She was last seen in black pants, a pink shirt, long gray sweater and blue sneakers. She also had a black sweater tied around her waist and was carrying a brown handbag, officials said.

The State Department has issued a travel advisory to Americans traveling to Mexico, warning that violent crime is “widespread and common.”

The children’s disappearance comes exactly two weeks after four travelers from South Carolina were kidnapped after driving across the border in Brownsville, Texas, in a minivan.