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Colleen Lee

The father of a 'playful' 10-year-old girl who was found in Shenzhen yesterday after making a solo cross-border trip on Monday gave heartfelt thanks last night to everyone who helped track down his daughter.

He was speaking as police investigating the case of Tai Chi-kwan said they found 'no criminal element'.

Mr Tai, who did not give his full name, said his daughter, who sparked a 20-hour search,  had just been 'too playful'.

Chi-kwan went missing after being dropped off at a tutorial centre on Monday.  She was found wandering tired and hungry in a Shenzhen shopping centre yesterday morning by three Hong Kong people who recognised her from a television report.

She was reunited in the early afternoon with her father, who had gone to Shenzhen with his sister that morning to search for the girl.

A mainland police source said earlier that Mr Tai told Shenzhen police he believed she had planned the trip and had taken  1,000 yuan from her Yau Ma Tei home.

Chi-kwan was dropped off by her grandfather at the tutorial centre in Ferry Street,  a block from her home, at 3.20pm on Monday. He  left after seeing her go through the main entrance. But the centre called her parents when she had not showed up by 3.45pm, and the family called  police.

A search of the building in which she lived was conducted and by 10pm investigators feared she had gone to the mainland because her parents could not find her home-return permit.  She had crossed the Lo Wu checkpoint into Shenzhen at 5pm on Monday, less than two hours after her grandfather dropped her off.

Immigration video recordings showed  a woman was nearby when Chi-kwan crossed the checkpoint and the pair were seen talking,  Immigration Service Officers Association chairman William Lee Hok-lim said. Chi-kwan appeared to wait for someone after passing the checkpoint, but it  did not appear suspicious, he  said.

Police said later it appeared the woman had been just a passer-by.

One of the three Hongkongers who found Chi-kwan, a Primary Four pupil at the Methodist School,  recalled seeing her wandering alone near a shopping centre elevator. 'She was wearing a school uniform and looked like the missing Hong Kong girl we saw earlier on TV. So we approached the girl and asked her identity,' said the man, surnamed Ng.

Chi-kwan said she had gone without food or water for a  day, Mr Ng said. They contacted her family then waited at a restaurant for them.

So Man-hing,  director of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions' Shenzhen office, who helped the family, said the girl appeared  tired. 'She didn't sleep for the whole night. She just wandered around ... She had lost her identity document.'

The family returned  home  at about 8.30 last night.

Unaccompanied minors can cross immigration checkpoints if they hold a valid travel document.



Girl's playfulness prompted solo trip to mainland