UPDATE: Mozambican police have no leads in Beira child kidnapping case – Watch

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UPDATE: Mozambican police have no leads in Beira child kidnapping case – Watch

2:41 CAT | 19 Apr 2018

Photo: O País

Police in Beira have confirm that a nine-year-old girl was abducted from in front of her school child by three masked and armed individuals on Tuesday.

The PRM said that it had no clues as to the perpetrators of the crime and asked for public help in identifying them.

PRM spokesman Daniel Macuácua told reporters he was not disclosing the identity of the 9-year-old victim or her parents in order to safeguard the investigation.

According to Macuácua, the child was driven to school by her uncle along with two of her friends.

All this is known about the kidnappers vehicle is that “it was grey in colour”. The kidnappers carried a pistol and a baton with which they threatened the school guard, Macuácua said.

According to eye-witnesses cited by STV, the four kidnappers, wearing masks, snatched the girl as she stepped out of a vehicle to enter a private school that was giving English lessons, AIM reported earlier. The witnesses, who insisted on anonymity, said the girl’s car was being followed by another vehicle which they initially believed was taking other children to the school, adds the same source.

“The car that was being followed stopped in front of the school and two children aged between seven and nine stepped out”, one of the witnesses said. “When a third child, apparently five or six years old, was preparing to get out of the car, two of the kidnappers left their own vehicle, and encircled the child”.

“The driver panicked and fled into the school, and at that moment the child was kidnapped”, the witness continued.

One of the school staff said he had seen at least two of the kidnappers brandishing pistols. The kidnappers and their victim made off at speed, and the current whereabouts of the gang are unknown.

“We will be exhaustive (…). Let the investigation continue,” PRM spokesman Daniel Macuacua said.

The child was kidnapped in Beira at about 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning in the Macuti neighbourhood.