“At 10:20 a.m., my wife called me and, quite stressed, told me that the child had disappeared from the kindergarten and was missing. It is unknown how they left the kindergarten - no one had seen them. This is unacceptable to me. We leave them inside in the care of educators“, the father of the girl who ran away from a kindergarten in Sofia commented to bTV.
Two children ran away from the 173rd kindergarten "Zvanche" in the capital's "Hadzhi Dimitar" district. The children were searched by police for almost an hour.
It is not clear exactly what time the children escaped, but it is believed to have happened right after breakfast. However, the signal was received by the police at around 10:15.
About 20-25 minutes after this signal, the police teams found the children, but quite far from “Zvnche“.
The children themselves told their parents that they had taken the metro, that they had gone to the “Gerena“ stadium, to a playground and that they had even visited a shopping mall.
The escaped children are a 5-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl.
The director of the establishment stated that access to the garden is controlled and that the children probably escaped by pressing a button.
“The children were found all the way to the corner of “Cherkovna“ and “Madrid“, which is quite far from here. First they were seen in the garden next to “Gerena“, then on “Poduyane“. They said they went to the playground on “Cherkovna“ street from “Hadzhi Dimitar“. They say they also went to the mall. Apparently they had been missing for a long time. The most disturbing thing is to hear “Hello, your child is missing“ and not know where he is“, commented the mother of one of the children.
The police explained that the children were found 5 minutes from the Romanian Embassy – quite far from the kindergarten.
“The older child – the girl, suggested that they walk to the metro, to the playgrounds. They knew how to open the door. The problem is that it was not immediately established and that time has passed. For a capital city, 20 minutes is not a small amount of time, all kinds of events are possible“, the investigators also pointed out.
The families of the two children are affected and insist on an on-site inspection.
It was later explained that the children were found missing at around 9.20 am, after breakfast. First, the teachers looked for them in the garden area, because children have often hidden before.
The principal was notified late, only after they failed to find them - around 10 am. Then she filed a report with the police and the district municipality and notified the parents.
The principal will request written explanations from the employees to establish exactly what happened, and administrative penalties will probably follow. Since it is summer, the children were in a group.