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

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.

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