A Dublin based German man is reported to have asked Italian authorities to launch a missing persons inquiry into the disappearance of his wife.

Xing Lei Li was last seen two weeks ago on board a Mediterranean cruise.

She – her husband Daniel Belling – and their two children live in Clarehall in Dublin.

Mr Belling is understood to have told Italian judges that she is alive – he was arrested at an airport in Rome after she failed to disembark the cruise.

He claims a similar incident happened while the family was on holidays previously and he believes she’s either in Dublin or with her family in China.