Man suspected of trying to abduct boy from maid

A Chinese man was seen apparently trying to take away a three-year-old Hong Kong boy while an Indonesian maid who was supposed to be taking care of the child was distracted by an elderly woman in a park in Kowloon City on Wednesday.

The boy’s father, surnamed Wong, said in a Facebook post late on Wednesday that his son and a 34-year-old domestic worker had gone to Carpenter Road Park in the afternoon on the same day. At around 6pm, his maid was approached by an old woman who kept asking questions about how to use a mobile phone.

While the boy wandered off, a man who spoke Cantonese with a strong mainland Chinese accent told the boy he was his uncle’s friend and tried to take him away, witnesses said.

The man held the boy in his arm, but the child started crying. Some local residents noticed the incident and thought the man looked suspicious. One of them called the police, suspecting an attempted child abduction.

The Chinese man and the old woman had left the park before police arrived. The boy was uninjured.

Wong said he used to ignore people who said it was unsafe to live in Hong Kong until this incident.

After checking closed-circuit TV footage, officers did not rule out the possibility that the boy had walked out of the park by himself and was then approached by the stranger, Sing Pao reported, citing the police.

Police said they were highly concerned about the case and had contacted the father for further information on Thursday, Oriental Daily reported.