The Royal Malaysian Police collaborates with Facebook to launch a service to help locate missing children in Malaysia.

Developed by Facebook, the National Urgent Response (NUR) Alert system will notify users on their news feed when children are reported as missing.

Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the system will help increase the chances of locating a missing child.

"With 19 million Facebook users in Malaysia, information can be disseminated more quickly and efficiently to help us locate a missing child," he said during the launch of the system on Friday.

Also present at the launch was Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Noor Rashid Ibrahim and Facebook Trust and Safety Director Emily Vacher.

According to Emily, the Royal Malaysian Police is the first country in Asia to collaborate with Facebook on such as system and the eighth in the world.

NUR Alert was launched in 2007 following the kidnapping and murder of Nurin Jazlin Jazimin.

The system works by spreading information through its task force members comprising 35 government agencies, non-governmental organisations and private companies to gather information to locate a missing child.