The boy failed to attend school and his parents couldn’t be reached, prompting police in Taiwan to issue a missing-person alert before he was found safe at sea
A frightened youngster was discovered adrift at sea on a massive polystyrene slab a day after he failed to appear at school.
The 11 year old pupil was absent from lessons on Tuesday morning, and alarmed by his unusual non-attendance, his teacher tried reaching his parents but got no response, reports the Mirror.
The lad, identified only by his family name Tsou, had previously been flagged by social services as belonging to a vulnerable household, triggering a welfare visit to the family residence. Despite numerous knocks at the door, there was no answer, leading officers to issue a missing-person bulletin.
That same afternoon, while the hunt continued, a fisherman noticed a child bobbing in the water at the mouth of the Zhonggang River off Zhunan Township, Taiwan, perched on a chunk of polystyrene.
He promptly alerted authorities and coastguard personnel raced to the location and succeeded in bringing the youngster, subsequently confirmed as Tsou, safely ashore in an urgent rescue mission.
Following the rescue, they got in touch with his father, who is employed in Hsinchu, and made arrangements for him to pick up his son.
Preliminary enquiries indicate Tsou may have journeyed unaccompanied from nearby Houlong Township to the coastal spot to play.
The precise details and his reasoning are still being examined. The Miaoli County Government’s Education Department has now stepped in and is offering counselling and assistance for both the youngster and his parents. Two years ago, a youngster was discovered trapped inside a large inflatable bubble drifting at sea by a shocked sailor who was enjoying a family boat trip.
Rafael Graça do Prado, then 32, was out on the water with his children when he spotted the unusual object floating off Lazaro Beach in Ubatuba, Sao Paulo, Brazil, on December 24.
Video footage captures the see-through bubble bobbing in the waves with the young lad, approximately eight years old, trapped inside.
It’s understood the child had been playing with his parents on the shore inside the bubble, which was tethered by a rope to prevent it from drifting away. However, the rope had broken and the youngster floated out to sea before being fortunately spotted by Rafael.
His immediate worry was whether sufficient oxygen remained inside the ball.
“I was worried about whether he was able to breathe or not because the balls can be dangerous,” he said. “There is a certain amount of time that you can breathe inside it. I calmed him down, and that was when my daughter started filming.”
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