Chinese social media helps reunite boy, 5, with his father after afternoon adventure
Child went for an 8km walk and his dad had no idea until police posted his photograph online
Chinese social media users helped reunite a five-year-old boy with his father last month after the youngster was found wandering 8km (5 miles) from home.
The child was at home in Zhangjiagang, east China’s Jiangsu province, on June 28 when he apparently decided to go for a walk without telling his father who was looking after him at the time, Yangtze Evening Post reported on Thursday.
After walking for several hours the boy, who was not named, found himself in an unfamiliar neighbourhood, the report said.
A local man spotted the child and fearing he might be lost decided to follow him. Once he was convinced the boy was disoriented, he contacted the police.
When officers arrived at the scene, the youngster was too frightened to talk to them, so they took him back to the local police station.
It was there that they turned to social media to help find his parents, and the trick worked, the report said.
After sharing the child’s photograph on WeChat, China’s most popular messaging service, police received a call from the his father, surnamed Hong.
The report quoted him as saying that he had not noticed his son had gone missing until he saw the pictures online.
Police officer Wang Meng said: “We were just relieved the boy looked fine.”
