Indian police stop child from entering 500km walk

FIVE-YEAR-OLD Budhia Singh, who became a celebrity after a seven-hour run that sparked charges of abuse, was stopped by police yesterday from participating in a 500km walking event.

The child was stopped from setting off in the scorching heat after authorities cited a government order that labelled an earlier such stunt as “torture”.

Dozens of police officers blocked a road in Bhunbaneshwar, Orissa state, preventing Singh from beginning his 10-day trek to Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal. Singh ran a 65km marathon in the same state last year.