Daughters of Missing Italian Journalist in Syria in Video Appeal

The two daughters of a missing Italian journalist on Saturday launched a video appeal asking Syrians to help them find their father who disappeared while on a mission in the war-torn country.

"We are the daughters of the Italian journalist and correspondent Domenico Quirico for La Stampa newspaper who disappeared in Syria 50 days ago," Metella and Eleonora said in the video posted on the daily's website.

"We are asking anyone with news to help us get him home," the two young women said, visibly emotional and in an apparent attempt to reach out directly to the Syrian people, asking them to come forward with information and to contact Italian authorities.

The sisters ended the message with an address to their father.

"Dad, with mum we're waiting for you to come home soon!"

Quirico has not been heard from since April 9, after he had entered Syria from Lebanon three days earlier.

The paper did not immediately announce the disappearance, saying it wanted to "avoid attracting attention to Domenico in a zone with a high risk of kidnapping".

The Syrian government has issued limited visas to journalists and tightly restricted where they can go and what they can cover.

The restrictions have prompted reporters to make increasingly perilous journeys into Syria across its borders with Turkey and Lebanon.

The 62-year-old journalist has long experience in conflict zones, having covered stories in Libya, Sudan and Mali.

While covering the conflict in Libya in 2011, he was briefly kidnapped along with three other Italian journalists but was later released.