Singapore police said on Wednesday that the report of an alleged attempted abduction of a boy at Jurong West Street 72 was investigated and the authorities have found that there was no attempted kidnapping.
On Facebook, the police posted that they were aware of the Tuesday report that was circulating online. "The police have thoroughly investigated into this case. We have verified that the report is untrue and the boy had lied to his parents," the authorities wrote on their social media platform.
"The police treat such reports seriously. At the same time, we urge members of the public not to speculate or spread unsubstantiated information which may generate an unnecessary public alarm," the post added.
Recently, Singapore parents were visibly shaken after two alleged incidents of strangers approaching young female students within a week hit headlines. On Jan 11, a teenage United World College (UWC) South-east Asia Dover campus middle-school student was reportedly offered a lift by a van driver, completely a stranger to her.
The second case, which took place on January 16, shocked the crowd even more as it involved a female driver. Reports said that a female student from Tanglin Trust School in Portsdown Road was approached by two people in a white van when she was walking towards her school from MRT station.
However, the police have confirmed that the two incidents in which strangers approached international school students in vehicles were not attempts of kidnapping. Moreover, officials said that those people were trying to help the students by offering them a lift. But, the parents still say that it is difficult to believe the strangers as their approach was out of known order.
Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam, commented on some media reports and said in a Facebook post on January 22 that Singaporeans need to be careful about spreading untrue stories and "unnecessarily alarming parents."
