Police are keeping in custody two people suspected of attempting to kidnap a young child in central Vietnam on Saturday.

At around 7:30 am on May 19, residents in Hoai Nhon District of Binh Dinh Province spotted a four-seater car parking in front of a roadside house, according to Tran Van Bang, a local official.

A man and woman in their thirties left the vehicle and stepped into the front yard where a four-year-old girl was playing unattended.

The child’s uncle who lives next door rushed to ask the strangers what they wanted, and they claimed to be rice traders.

Supposing that they were child abductors, the girl’s neighbors caught and turned them in to police, Bang said, adding that the man and woman knelt down to beg for nonviolent treatment from several furious residents who were present at the scene.

The suspects were first brought to a government building, and then had to be carried to a police station in a squad car later on the same day because around 500 residents gathering at the place threatened to kill them, police said.

People gather at a government building to await results from police investigation of suspected child abduction in Binh Dinh Province, Vietnam, May 19, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The authorities stressed that no evidence of child abduction has been found and investigation is still under way.

The latest incident of kidnapping was noted on May 6 in Binh Phuoc Province, where an unminded five-year-old boy was taken away by a woman named Le Thi X., living about two kilometers from his home.

With a face mask on, X. cruised back and forth several times in front of the yard of the child’s accommodation before coaxing him into climbing on her motorbike and running away.

His father and some neighbors stopped the woman, 46, after chasing her at high speed for about one kilometer.

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