The death of toddler Emile Soleil, a two-and-a-half year old boy who went missing in a French Alpine village last summer, remains unexplained despite the discovery of his skull by a walker at the weekend, the prosecutor has said.
The skull and teeth found so far "do not indicate what the cause of the death of Emile was," Aix-en-Provence prosecutor Jean-Luc Blanchon told reporters.
Speaking at a news conference, Mr Blanchon said that so far "between a fall, manslaughter and murder no hypothesis can be given greater precedence above another to explain the death".
But he revealed that some of the boy's clothes had been found close to where the skull had been discovered by the walker - a T-shirt, the boy's shoes and his shorts - and these would be examined.
"No injury ante mortem (before death) was observed on the skull," he added, saying there were marks that could have been caused after death by animals who are present in the area.
Mr Blanchon said that investigations on the ground around where the skull was found would continue "probably tomorrow".
Dozens of gendarmes and investigators, aided by dogs specialised in detecting human remains, were involved in a fresh search which will also seek to find new evidence about what happened to Emile, the local gendarmerie said.
Searches will continue for as long as necessary, the gendarmerie has said, with no outside person allowed to access Haut-Vernet, home to just 25 people, until the end of this week at least.
Investigators on the ground are being helped by forensic colleagues in Paris who are examining the remains that were found.
Were remains moved?
The remains - the skull and teeth - were found on Saturday by a hiker along a track some way from the hamlet of Le Haut-Vernet, with the key question whether that was the place Emile died or if they were moved there later.
That area had already been thoroughly inspected shortly after Emile went missing in July.
Investigators will try to find out whether "these bones could have been moved by a human, an animal, or the weather conditions," gendarmerie spokeswoman Marie-Laure Pezant said yesterday.
Two neighbours last saw Emile walking alone on a street in Le Haut Vernet, 4,000 feet up in the French Alps on 8 July. The little boy was wearing a yellow T-shirt, white shorts and tiny hiking shoes.
A massive search involving police, soldiers, sniffer dogs, a helicopter and drones failed to find any sign.
Police last week returned to the village, cordoning off the area and summoning 17 people including family members, neighbours and witnesses to re-enact the last moments before he went missing.
There is no suggestion of any link between the timing of the re-enactment and discovery of the remains.
Emile's mother and father were absent on the day of his disappearance. "This heart breaking news was feared," the child's parents said in a statement released by their lawyer after the remains were found.
Some media had focused on the role of the boy's grandfather, now in his fifties.
The grandfather was questioned in the 1990s over alleged violence and sexual assault at a private school.
But a source close to the case said any possible role in the case had only been considered with other hypotheses.
The grandfather's lawyer on Sunday declined to comment, "out of respect for the family's grief".
