PUTRAJAYA, April 17 — A four-year-old boy who was reported missing while in the custody of a nursery in Precinct 3 here was found safe on a school bus in Cheras this afternoon.
Putrajaya District Police chief ACP Rosly Hassan said the nursery’s staff realised the child was missing after his 40-year-old mother said she could not locate her son at the premises.
“At about 4.50pm, the mother of the victim who worked as an administrative assistant went to kindergarten to fetch her son, but could not find him.
“We were told that the children had been by the kindergarten to the Agrobank Field in Bangi for a sports day rehearsal,” he said when contacted today.
He said following the incident, the police interviewed all the teachers at the kindergarten to assist with investigations.
“The investigation found that the child was involved in the rehearsal with 87 other children at the Bangi Agrobank Training Centre. The students were taken there using three hired school buses.
“The students were accompanied by a total of 11 teachers. The bus the child was in had three teachers. The interview also revealed that the teachers had done a head count before returning from the centre and at the time, all the students were accounted for,” he said.
He said escorting teachers also checked on the number of students while the bus was on the way back and found that everyone was on board, however, upon arriving at the kindergarten, a check was not done to confirm if all the students had alighted.
“All students were then directed to enter their respective classes. At about 3.20pm, one of the class teachers realised that the student was not in the class, but his school bag and mattress were still there.
“The teacher thought the student had been fetched by his parents but later found out that the child was not at the kindergarten. The staff searched all over the premises but could not find the student,” he said.
He said the owner of the kindergarten contacted the bus driver at 7.05pm to conduct a check and the child was found sleeping on one of the chairs,” he said, adding that the complainant will be filing a report to inform of the child’s discovery. — Bernama
