Search teams hunting for missing April Jones were spurred on last night by pink ribbons of hope donned by hundreds in the community.
As the urgent race against time entered its fourth night, police chiefs spoke of the "humbling" wave of support for their efforts.
More than 2500 calls with information have been received by police in response to their appeal on Wednesday.
Residents across the small mid Wales town of Machynlleth donned pink ribbons in a symbolic gesture of hope.
The show of solidarity came in response to a plea from April's mother, Coral Jones, to wear ribbons of pink, her daughter's favourite colour.
As the family's nightmare continues, residents decorated their cars, homes and clothes with the pink ribbons.
"It is a symbol of the hope that April is going to come back and we are all still optimistic," said Machynlleth Mayor Gareth Jones.
Superintendent Ian John, of Dyfed Powys Police, wore a pink ribbon last night in a personal show of solidarity.
He said officers from across England and Wales are helping to field calls and searchers are determined to find April.
Speaking outside the town's leisure centre, which has become a focal point in co-ordinating local search efforts, Mr John said: "I want to turn to April's family. I'm sure we all are feeling for them at this terrible time, also the friends and the extended family.
"I just want to remind everybody that's why we're here tonight, in the pouring rain in Machynlleth, is to focus on the search and do everything we can to bring this operation to a conclusion."
He added: "I think what we've got to hold on to is that we continue our search, and the good news is that everybody is determined to follow this through."
The community continues to hold its collective breath while awaiting a breakthrough.
But April's abduction has left residents on the edge of despair.
Abduction suspect Mark Bridger, 46, of Machynlleth, remains in custody and is still being questioned at Aberystwyth police station.
Officers have been given extra time to hold him but have to either charge or release him by 5pm today.
They are still desperate to piece together his movements from 5pm on Monday until his arrest at 3.30pm on Tuesday.
April was seen willingly getting into what is believed to be a Land Rover Discovery on the Bryn-y-Gog estate where she lives at 7pm on Monday.
Mr Bridger drives a Land Rover Discovery which was seized from a local repair garage on Tuesday and fast-tracked for forensic examination.
Expert search efforts have continued to focus on a small farmhouse in the nearby village of Ceinws where he was known to be most recently living.
Search teams began lifting up paving slabs outside the property while activity continued inside.
Along the fast-moving River Dyfi teams have spent all day scouring the area.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article