Singapore couple forget 5-year-old son, leave him behind at Malaysia rest stop

A weekend road trip to Malaysia left a five-year-old Singaporean boy stranded.

After taking a break at a rest stop along the North-South expressway on Saturday (Dec 14), his parents went on their way, but didn't realise that he wasn't in the car.

The child was later discovered in the toilet, wandering around the area while crying for his mum.

A Petronas station attendant named Zammal found the boy when he was cleaning the toilet and attempted to look for his parents around the area.

When his search turned out futile, Zammal took the lost boy inside the petrol station's staff room to rest, and managed to soothe the frightened child with ice cream and Milo.

The petrol station manager told Lianhe Wanbao: "We made a police report but decided to have him stay with us at the petrol station in case his parents came to look for him."

They were unable to get more information out of the boy besides his name and age, so the staff turned to social media for help.

A photo of the boy was circulated on Facebook, asking for help to locate his parents.

[[nid:458369]]

The couple only realised that their son was missing two hours after leaving the rest stop in Kluang, and called the police, 8world reported.

That same night, the police reunited the child with his parents at a police station located 20km away from the petrol station.

The police confirmed that the boy is a Singaporean.

It is unclear if the family returned to Singapore or continued with their journey in Malaysia.

lamminlee@asiaone.com