Report of missing model investigated

Shanghai police are investigating the reported disappearance of a Ukrainian model who friends say has been out of contact for over a week, according to an official at the Hongkou sub-bureau of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

The 21-year-old model, known as Daria, had been working at a modeling agency in Shanghai for about three months, according to an online Weibo notice posted by a netizen named Senxuan on Friday.

The post said the model, who is 1.8 meters tall with long brown hair, was last seen near Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower between 5 and 6 am on Aug 6. She was wearing a pink, one-piece dress and carrying a black bag.

"No more details can be released yet since the case is still under investigation in cooperation with the Embassy of Ukraine in China," the police official, who asked not to be named, told China Daily on Monday.

Daria's roommate, Nancy, who is also a foreign model in China, posted information about the case via a WeChat public account that has been widely forwarded among models, the Shanghai Morning Post reported.

Some of Daria's friends checked her social networking pages to see if she had any plans arranged, but were unable to find any clues.

"She is a nice girl, although she is not very cheerful and doesn't have a very big social network. She has some close friends," one of her friends was quoted as saying.

In 2008, a Canadian model was found dead in Shanghai two weeks after arriving in the city to work. Chen Jun, a 18-year-old man from Anhui province, pleaded guilty to robbing her and stabbing her to death.