Left alone on the trail with just a few snacks and a drink
A man abandoned his seven-year-old son for hours on Mount Fuji to continue climbing Japan’s iconic peak, receiving a stern warning from authorities. The child was found alone on a hiking trail on Thursday and taken into police custody, a local police officer in the Shizuoka region told AFP on Saturday.
The boy told his father that he was tired at the sixth station of the mountain, which is at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres, local TV SBS reported.
Because the older brother had gone ahead, the seven-year-old’s father told him to “wait here” and continued the hike with his other son, according to SBS. TV Asahi said the boy was told to wait for eight hours with only snacks and a soft drink and no money, citing staff at a mountain lodge who alerted police to his presence. The officers contacted the father, who was at the eighth station, and returned the child to him upon his return. The police officer told AFP that the police reprimanded the man for leaving his son behind. The father reportedly apologized to the police, admitting that he had acted negligently.
