Four-Year-Old Girl Snatched by Man at Melbourne Shopping Centre

Child girl at Melbourne shopping centre during a safety incident.

A four-year-old girl was allegedly snatched by a stranger�at a shopping centre in Melbourne.

Police were alerted on Thursday evening after a girl was taken by a man from a busy food court at a Melbourne shopping centre.

It was reported that a�witness heard a mother screaming for help to save her daughter. Then, the witness�saw�a man sprinting through Northland Shopping Centre’s food court�holding�the girl.

The witness told the�Herald Sun that the girl was with her family when the man�grabbed her soon after 8pm.�”The mother was beside herself,” she said.

She then�saw the man running away, holding the girl like a baby.�”He was running extremely fast, dodging the tables, going towards the exit,” she said.

The witness also said that people ran after the man and there was an ‘altercation’.�Victoria police said the man ran about 50 metres with the girl before he was stopped by a member of the public..

The girl was immediately returned to her family.

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The witness�said that shopping centre security had told her they had not called�police because the man was believed to have an intellectual disability.

The man was said to have been accompanied by a woman who said she “can’t believe this has happened again,” adding that the man�would not have known what he was doing.

However, Victoria police confirmed they were investigating the incident and stated�that a 26-year-old Reservoir man, who had an intellectual disability, was taken to a police station and�questioned, but was then�released without being charged.

Meanwhile, Northland Shopping Centre released a statement saying it was closely assisting Victoria Police by providing the relevant CCTV footage of�the�incident.�Spokesman Arj Ganeshalingam said security and police were at the scene�soon�after the incident.

Source: Herald Sun

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Clare Whitfield Chief Editor
Clare Whitfield is the Editor of Stay at Home Mum and a recognised voice in practical home management for Australian families. Based in the northern suburbs of Sydney, she balances editorial leadership with life as a stay at home mum to two school age children. Her background in home economics and more than a decade of experience in recipe development, family budgeting, and household systems inform her work.

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