An investigation has been opened following the attempted kidnapping of a 6-year-old in Brussels' winter festival at the weekend.
The mother of the child said two men attempted to abduct her son while he was skating with his sister in the ice-skating rink in Brussels' Place De Brouckère.
Speaking to Francophone daily La Capitale, the woman said that a man who looked like he was in his twenties grabbed his son's hand and started skating very fast towards the edge of the rink.
"Suddenly, when he reached the end of the rink, he lifted my son up and attempted to pass him over to someone else over the railing," she added.
The woman said that her daughter, who had followed the man as fast as she could, started screaming and tugging on her brother and managed to make him fall back inside the rink.
The two men fled the scene after the incident, which took place in a rink that was reportedly crowded on the day after Christmas.
"We have been informed of this and an investigation has been initiated," Olivier Slosse of the Brussels-Ixelles police zone told Bruzz.
The public prosecutor's office will lead the investigation into the incident and did not comment on the mother's account of the events, but confirmed that she had filed a complaint with police.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
