Sharjah: Police are praising a four-year-old Algerian boy who called 999 to warn authorities his mother was trapped in the kitchen of the family home and couldn’t get out.
The boy’s determined efforts to reach someone by phone to help unlock his mum saved the day last Wednesday in Sharjah.
Major Mohammad Gazal, head of operations section at Sharjah Police operations room, told Gulf News that the little boy dialled 999 several times and police service operator Yousuf Khalifa — who took the unusual call — believed that the child was playing with the mobile phone.
Police receive such calls from children frequently but, during the third call, the police operator figured something must be wrong in the home and the child needed help.
The child uttered a few words and it was not comprehensible, said Major Gazal. The police operator then heard a scream from afar.
He then spoke with the boy and asked him to take the mobile phone nearest to the sound. The mother spoke through a locked door with the police operator who managed to get the mobile number of her husband. Police called the husband who was near the house and informed him about the incident.
When the father returned home, he found his wife crying in the kitchen because she was worried about the safety of her son and their daughter, Salma, aged one year and four months.
It turned out that the mother was cleaning the kitchen when the door closed and the door handle fell to the floor in their third-floor home in a residential building in Muweilah.
Esmail Mawjoid, the father, told Gulf News that his wife was in panic inside the kitchen and did not know how to protect her children while she was locked in the kitchen.
She grew more and more worried because of an open window in their home and she called on Abdullah calmly to close the window of the living room to prevent any danger to her children.
She then told Abdullah to call his father but the phone was out of credit so the boy then called 999 and the calls went through.
“We taught Abdullah how to find the phone number of his father and mother as well as how to dial the number of the police,” Mawjoid said.
Major Gazal said that Sharjah Police are giving top priority to any calls coming from children as they may be serious cases.
