Hunt for tsunami boy who may have been kidnapped

Swedish and Thai police are searching for a 12-year-old Swedish boy last seen leaving a Thai hospital with an unknown man in the aftermath of the south Asian tsunami.

A boy matching the description of 12-year-old Kristian Walker was last seen with a German man at a hospital near Khao Lak on Monday, but has since vanished, despite a desperate search by his American grandfather, Daniel Walker, family and police said.

Kristian’s father, Dan Walker, said he was fearful that his son may have fallen prey to paedophiles that have been known to gather in Thailand, or child trafficking rings, but was not sure.

“I can only guess, and you can only guess, what has happened to him,” Mr Walker said today.

While he acknowledged that his son may have already been taken out of Thailand, Mr Walker said he has urged Thai authorities to send Kristian’s picture to all border patrols and airports to help prevent him from leaving the country.

In the wake of the devastating tsunami, there have been unconfirmed reports of dozens of orphaned children taken by unidentified people, some of them possibly child traffickers.

This week, the Swedish branch of Save the Children, or Raedda Barnen, warned governments in south Asia to be mindful of children left orphaned or without families in the disaster, saying they could be potential targets for pedophiles.

“The experience from other catastrophes is that children are particularly vulnerable,” said Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, managing director of the agency.

Swedish and Thai police said they were searching for the boy, but said they could not confirm that he had had been kidnapped.

Two Swedish police officers were assisting in the investigation, National Police spokeswoman Carolina Ekeus said.

Thai Police Lieutenant Colonel Preecha Kraewthanong said they were checking border points to see whether the boy and the man had left.

“We are looking for him to be sure whether he kidnapped the boy or not and the boy was really Kristian Walker or not,” he said.

Dr. Pisith Yongyuth, director of Taimuang hospital in Phang Nga province, said a German man brought a boy who might be Kristian to the hospital around 1 a.m. on December 27 – the day after the tsunami hit – accompanied by another boy aged about eight. By late morning, all three left.

“We cannot confirm that this boy is really Kristian Walker; we can only say that he seems to be the boy described by his grandfather and media reports,” Yongyuth said.

Kristian’s father said two doctors at the hospital identified his son from photographs that were shown to them by Daniel Walker last week.

Both men had gone to Phuket after the tsunami to search for their family, which was on holiday with his estranged wife, Madeleine, who is still missing. Dan Walker’s two other children, David, 14 and Anna, seven, were found and are back home in Sweden with him.

Grandfather Walker has remained in Thailand searching for Kristian.

While Kristian’s name does not appear in any hospital records, Dan Walker said his father is convinced hospital officials are correct. “To me, that’s enough to keep searching,” he said.

Dan Walker said Kristian speaks English, but that it was unclear whether the boy in the hospital had talked to the man he left with. If Kristian did leave willingly with another man, he must have won his trust, Dan Walker said.

“I assume that he wasn’t drugged or in a state of shock,” he said.