The girl, named by police as Maelle, was last seen on August 28 on the campsite she was staying at in the Var region in the south of France.

After reporting their daughter missing and posting photos of her around the region, Maelle’s parents confirmed today to daily paper Le Parisien that she ran away with Tony, the campsite doughnut seller.

Maelle had confided in friends by text message that she was going to move to Italy with her “lover”, Tony.

A taxi driver told police he had dropped off a teenager and a young man fitting Maelle and Tony’s descriptions near the town of Cannes.

The couple were also seen at the Menton train station, a town on the France-Italy border, and Tony’s Facebook page reportedly claims that his current location is Palermo in Sicily.

As part of the investigation police spoke to Tony’s mother, who has not seen her son for the past three years.

“We nicknamed him ‘Tony le Trouillard’ (Tony the Coward). He’s a scaredy-cat. The girl disappeared and now he has to hide, he’s scared. He’s a fragile child,” she said in local paper Sud Ouest.

One of Tony’s latest Facebook updates reportedly says: “I’m not going to stay still while the world carries on turning.”