( dpa ) - Belgian police were seeking a Guinea-born campaigner against female genital mutilation, Waris Dirie, on Friday after she failed to show up to receive an award the same day.
Dirie, 43, who was appointed a UN special ambassador against genital mutilation in 1997, is a former fashion model.
Police were concerned she may have suffered harm.
She was last seen at 4 am Wednesday in Brussels, when she had an argument with hotel receptionists and then got into a taxi.
She then failed to show up for appointments with European Union and United Nations officials or to receive the Martin Buber Badge for 2007 on Friday in the Dutch town of Kerkrade, on the German border.
Werner Janssen, president of Euriade, a cross-border association that administers the prize, said the argument at the hotel was evidently a result of her becoming lost and not being able to find her own Brussels hotel.