Search for Japanese boy abandoned in forest continues

Japanese police on Monday continued the search for a seven-year-old boy missing since Saturday in a forested, mountainousremote area of Hokkaido, after being abandoned there as punishment by his parents.

According to the parents account, he was forced to alight from the vehicle in which the family was travelling, for his bad behaviour, leaving him alone on foot on a road at the base of Mount Komagatake, on Hokkaido island, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Although the seven-year-old boy ran behind the vehicle, his family told authorities that they lost sight of him and returned a few minutes later to the spot where they left him only to find him gone.

The parents reported the disappearance on Saturday afternoon and initially said that the small boy got lost while collecting berries in the forest, but on Sunday acknowledged having abandoned him as punishment for bad behaviour.

Around 130 police officers and firefighters are combing through an area of 5 sq.km, populated by wild bears, to look for the child who did not carry any food at the time of his disappearance.

The boy was wearing a navy shorts, a black pullover and a red sneaker at the time of his disappearence, police said.

--IANS

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