The story of an elementary school student’s daring escape from an attempted abduction in West Jakarta recently went viral in social media and in the news, but her and her friends’ testimonies are raising questions as to what exactly happened (or if it happened at all).
According to the fourth grade student, identified by her initials PI, she and her two friends, S and SF, had just left their school in Tanjung Duren on Monday when and old man tried to grab her from behind.
“So I bit (his arm) and then I ran,” PI said in a viral video showing her recollecting the incident to her teachers, as picked up by Kompas.
PI’s school principal, Mulyadi, confirmed that the families of the three students, including PI’s, reported the attempted abduction to the school and the police.
“So the kids had actually left school and were on their way for extracurricular activities. At around 2:30pm they went to buy cilok (a local snack) in front of the school,” he said.
Mulyadi then said that the girls all claimed that an old man tried to abduct them not far from the school and the cilok seller, and that he was going to put them in his car.
The girls then said they saw two students — both tied up — inside the car before they escaped the attempted abduction.
The police say they have not received any reports of child abductions in the area. Nevertheless, they are carrying out an investigation into the girls’ claims as they are not ruling out the possibility that the two students could have been abducted from somewhere else.
As for PI, her father told the media that she seems to be showing no signs of mental trauma and that she has been her usual happy self ever since the alleged attempted kidnapping.
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