Free State police are searching for nine-year-old Boipelo Mesi, who went missing while playing with her friends when her mother went to visit a friend in Gelukwaarts, Maokeng.

According to the police, Mesi went missing on Tuesday, 1 September.

"The mother alleges she went to visit a friend in Phomolong, leaving Boipelo playing with friends," police spokesperson Colonel Thandi Mbambo said.

Mbambo said that, on Lynette Sesele's return around 13:00, the nine-year-old was nowhere to be found.

Sesele asked Mesi's friends, and was told that she had been talking to a tall man with a blue overall. They left for the tuck shop and never came back.

Police have asked anyone with information to contact the Investigating Officer, Detective Captain Mamohale Sompane, at 082 854 7547 or Crime Stop at 08600 10111.