A manhunt was launched on Wednesday August 17 in South Africa after the early morning abduction of a six-year-old boy on his way to school in a suburb of Cape Town, police said.
"
Six suspects fled with the victim and have not yet been arrested
," local police said in a statement.
An investigation, considered "
sensitive
", has been opened.
Read alsoSouth Africa: rally in Marikana, ten years after the massacre
Six-year-old Shanawaaz Asghar was abducted outside the family home in Kensington, a suburb in northern Cape Town.
“
He was heading with his father, brother and sister to their car in the yard in front of their house when he was abducted
,” a police source told AFP.
No reason has been disclosed so far.
South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world.
The number of kidnappings more than doubled in the first quarter of this year (3306 cases) compared to the previous year, according to police statistics.