New Delhi: A six-year-old girl was kidnapped in broad daylight on Monday by unknown persons in Kerala's Kollam district. The incident occurred between 4 pm and 4.30 pm near the Pooyappally area, reported PTI.
A few hours after the incident, the kidnappers allegedly made a ransom call on the mother's phone demanding Rs five lakh.
Soon after the incident, the police went into high alert across the state and widened its dragnet to catch the culprits.
The kidnappers, suspected to be four in number and including one woman, came in a white car and abducted the child while she was going for tuition along with her elder eight-year-old brother, PTI reported citing the police.
When the boy tried to stop them, they pushed him aside and whisked away the girl in the car, an officer of Pooyappally police station said. The victim's brother suffered injuries to his knees while trying to save his sister, they said.
"We have collected CCTV footage from cameras in the area and are presently going through it. The vehicle used in the kidnapping is suspected to be a white sedan -- either a Honda Amaze or a Swift Dzire," the officer said.
Hours after the girl was kidnapped, a call was received on the mother's phone and initially everyone thought that it was news that the girl had been traced.
However, the happiness was short-lived as it turned out that it was a ransom call from the kidnappers demanding Rs 5 lakh for the safe return of the child, reported PTI.
Meanwhile, police intensified the search for the child with vehicles being checked on all major and minor roads in the southern districts of Kollam, Pathanamthitta, and Thiruvananthapuram.
As per PTI, the visuals of the police dragnet showed officers checking vehicles, especially white-coloured ones, on the roads.
The parents of the children are nurses in two separate private hospitals.