Couldn't scold son, I hugged him tightly

WHAT started out as child's play turned into a five-hour long search at Marine Crescent yesterday when an eight-year-old boy went missing.

RELIEVED: The boy's grandmother (far left) and his mother comforting him at the void deck of a Marine Crescent block. TNP PICTURE: KUA CHEE SIONG

And in a touching way a search party, which included the boy's mother, grandmother, a number of neighbours and police, came together to search for the missing boy.

He was eventually found by the police.

The boy (we are not naming him so as not to expose him to ridicule) was playing at the playground near Block 45, where he lives, at about 2pm.

His grandmother sat nearby to watch over him.

But he somehow slipped away from his grandmother about an hour later, wandering off without telling her.

A police spokesman said that they received a call at about 4pm yesterday asking for help to look for the boy.

The boy was last seen at Block 45 Marine Crescent at about 3pm.

When The New Paper arrived at the Marine Crescent block at about 7.30pm yesterday, the boy's grandmother, who wanted to be known only as Madam Loh, said that her grandson had already been found.

Visibly relieved, she said: 'I was watching him play and then suddenly, he was gone.

'I was so scared when he went missing that I haven't eaten anything since.

'But luckily, the police found him. I'm very happy.'

The police spokesman confirmed that police officers managed to locate the missing boy in the vicinity at about 7.20pm and he was then handed over to his mother.

The boy's mother, who declined to be named, left her office immediately when her sister-in-law called at about 3pm to inform her that her son was missing.

She rushed back to Marine Crescent in her colleague's car, where she found her mother-in-law crying near the playground as she searched for the eight-year-old.

Together with some police officers, the mother knocked on every single door from the first storey all the way till the 16th storey of Block 45.

The mother, a Singapore PR, said: 'I was also hoping to find my son's shoes outside one of my neighbours' units.

'I didn't even feel tired (searching). I just wanted to find my son and couldn't think of anything else besides him.'

Found

But the eight-year-old was only found much later at a unit at another block.

It was believed that he had followed two younger boys, whom he had met for the first time at the playground that day, to their home at Block 44.

The boy's father is in Japan on a business trip.

The mother told The New Paper that she was so touched when she saw her neighbours and police officers going around the neighbourhood to look for her missing son.

A neighbour, who wanted to be known only as Madam Lam, described the eight-year-old as a 'very quiet and shy boy' and was surprised to hear that he had gone missing.

The mother said that she did not know all the details because her son was still affected by the incident and could not explain what had happened to her properly.

The boy was seen crying uncontrollably as the police officers and his mother spoke to him at the void deck.

She said: 'I was very angry with him at first but when I finally found him, my legs felt like jelly.

'I couldn't even bring myself to scold him. I just hugged him tightly.

'After all, he's my son and most importantly, he's safe and sound now.'

She said her son loved going to the playground near their flat to play but this was the first time that he had gone missing.