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01-04-2005, 09:46 PM
Swedish Boy Feared Abducted After Tsunami
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — The hunt was on Tuesday for a 12-year-old Swedish boy who's been missing since he was spotted leaving a hospital in post-tsunami Thailand with an unidentified man.
Swedish and Thai police were jointly conducting the search effort for the adolescent, Kristian Walker (search), who was apparently last seen Monday with an unknown German man at a hospital near the resort of Khao Lak (search).
The pair left the facility in the wake of the Christmas weekend tsunami disaster that has ravaged much of south Asia, including vacation spots in Thailand. A boy matching Kristian's description was seen with the man, but the child has since vanished, seemingly without a trace.
His American grandfather, Daniel Walker, and his father, Dan Walker, are involved in the desperate search to find the missing child.
Swedish and Thai police said they were searching for the boy, but said they could not confirm media reports that he had been kidnapped. The boy was listed as missing by international law enforcement agencies worldwide Tuesday.
There is growing concern about the exploitation — sexual and otherwise — of children orphaned or lost in the wake of the earthquake and storm that leveled much of south Asia, has taken close to 150,000 lives and left at least 5 million people homeless.
"There’s an element of this world that prey upon children and this is a particularly easy time for them where they can prey upon the weak, the vulnerable and the needy," Pete Banks of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children told FOX News on Tuesday.
Reports surfaced Tuesday of children being snatched and then sold as they wandered around after the tsunami.
"This has happened in the past before this devastation, and now with the devastation it makes it that much easier to perpetrate these crimes," Banks told FOX News.
Two Swedish police officers were assisting in the investigation to find Kristian, National Police spokeswoman Carolina Ekeus said.
Dr. Pisith Yongyuth, director of Taimuang hospital in Phang Nga province, told the AP that a German man brought a boy who might be Kristian to the hospital around 1 a.m. on Dec. 27 — the day after the tsunami hit — accompanied by another boy about 8 years old. By late morning, all three had left.
"We cannot confirm that this boy is really Kristian Walker; we can only say that he seems to be the boy described by his grandfather and media reports," Yongyuth said.
While he acknowledged that his son may have already been taken out of Thailand, Dan Walker said he has urged Thai authorities to send Kristian's picture to all border patrols and airports to help prevent him from leaving the country.
The Swedish tabloid Expressen and other media reported on their Web sites or in Tuesday's editions that police were searching for Kristian amid fears he was kidnapped. Expressen said the boy was accompanied at a hospital by a man described by employees as "European looking, with a moustache and red shirt."
In the wake of the devastating tsunami, there have been unconfirmed reports of dozens of orphaned children being taken by unidentified people, some of them possibly child traffickers.
More on this Story (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C143280%2C00.html)
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — The hunt was on Tuesday for a 12-year-old Swedish boy who's been missing since he was spotted leaving a hospital in post-tsunami Thailand with an unidentified man.
Swedish and Thai police were jointly conducting the search effort for the adolescent, Kristian Walker (search), who was apparently last seen Monday with an unknown German man at a hospital near the resort of Khao Lak (search).
The pair left the facility in the wake of the Christmas weekend tsunami disaster that has ravaged much of south Asia, including vacation spots in Thailand. A boy matching Kristian's description was seen with the man, but the child has since vanished, seemingly without a trace.
His American grandfather, Daniel Walker, and his father, Dan Walker, are involved in the desperate search to find the missing child.
Swedish and Thai police said they were searching for the boy, but said they could not confirm media reports that he had been kidnapped. The boy was listed as missing by international law enforcement agencies worldwide Tuesday.
There is growing concern about the exploitation — sexual and otherwise — of children orphaned or lost in the wake of the earthquake and storm that leveled much of south Asia, has taken close to 150,000 lives and left at least 5 million people homeless.
"There’s an element of this world that prey upon children and this is a particularly easy time for them where they can prey upon the weak, the vulnerable and the needy," Pete Banks of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children told FOX News on Tuesday.
Reports surfaced Tuesday of children being snatched and then sold as they wandered around after the tsunami.
"This has happened in the past before this devastation, and now with the devastation it makes it that much easier to perpetrate these crimes," Banks told FOX News.
Two Swedish police officers were assisting in the investigation to find Kristian, National Police spokeswoman Carolina Ekeus said.
Dr. Pisith Yongyuth, director of Taimuang hospital in Phang Nga province, told the AP that a German man brought a boy who might be Kristian to the hospital around 1 a.m. on Dec. 27 — the day after the tsunami hit — accompanied by another boy about 8 years old. By late morning, all three had left.
"We cannot confirm that this boy is really Kristian Walker; we can only say that he seems to be the boy described by his grandfather and media reports," Yongyuth said.
While he acknowledged that his son may have already been taken out of Thailand, Dan Walker said he has urged Thai authorities to send Kristian's picture to all border patrols and airports to help prevent him from leaving the country.
The Swedish tabloid Expressen and other media reported on their Web sites or in Tuesday's editions that police were searching for Kristian amid fears he was kidnapped. Expressen said the boy was accompanied at a hospital by a man described by employees as "European looking, with a moustache and red shirt."
In the wake of the devastating tsunami, there have been unconfirmed reports of dozens of orphaned children being taken by unidentified people, some of them possibly child traffickers.
More on this Story (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C143280%2C00.html)