A girl (3) has been snatched in an Australian town, prompting a major police hunt. Chloe Campbell went missing at around 7am local time on Thursday morning from a home in Childers, Queensland.

She is described as white, with light brown shoulder-length hair and around 3-foot-3 inches tall.

Police, who have issued a child abduction alert, say she was wearing orange shorts and a yellow shirt with butterflies and bees on the front.

Her father, Garth Campbell, told Australian Associated Press that Chloe - who normally sleeps in the living room - had vanished along with her sleeping bag and stuffed, blue toy dog.

He said a window was open and that there was an adult-sized footprint on the family's car outside.

"I don't think there's any possible way she's wandered off," he said.

A major alert has been issued

"She wouldn't leave the yard by herself". He added that they normally closed the windows at night, but that one of the must have failed to lock properly.

"That's why we are blaming ourselves" he said.

"I think it's got to be someone who knows me, in how they got in, where she sleeps. They knew she was sleeping in front of the TV".

Bundaberg Police Inspector Kev Guteridge said "Shortly after 7am Bundaberg Police were contacted by a distraught mother of a three-year-old girl to advise that her daughter was missing".

"We do hold very serious concerns for the safety of the girl as we do with every missing person reported".