UAE | Crime
Girl, 6, escapes abduction bid Dubai in Silicon Oasis
Shaken residents raise alarm about security in gated community
- By Sharmila Dhal and Jay B. Hilotin, Senior Reporter and Chief Reporter, XPRESS
- Published: 00:00 October 27, 2011
- Image Credit: © XPRESS / Zarina Fernandes
- The playground in Cedre Villas community where the alleged abduction attempt took place
DUBAI: An attempt to "abduct" a six-year-old girl from a playground in Dubai Silicon Oasis has sent shock waves within the gated community.
The girl's father told XPRESS his daughter was in the playground 70 metres away from their home in Cedre Villas when she was approached by a man with a "short beard and light skin" at around 6pm on a Tuesday evening some weeks back. "The man asked if she would like to go to his house to see his kittens and offered her some candy."
The one that got away
Mercifully her parents had told her not to entertain strangers girl. "She sensed trouble and ran away. She came straight home and told us what happened," said the father, who asked not to be identified. "A friend and her brother with whom she was playing confirmed that a man was talking to her," he said. By the time he rushed out to check the playground with his daughter, the man had disappeared.
Cedre Villas is a gated community inside Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), a high-tech free zone, with lush greenery, community pools and vast gardens.
The father said he called the DSO security and the police, who came immediately.
"People who live in gated communities tend to be complacent about security. But we need to be vigilant and keep an eye on each other and our children. We need to be more aware of who comes in and out of our neighbourhood," he said.
"And it would help if CCTV cameras are installed at the main gates and in parks and playgrounds."
The DSO community website has put up a ‘Security Alert' on its home page. "Please be vigilant with your children," the post said, with reference to the incident with the six-year-old. It even offered tips to ensure child safety.
The community is populated mostly by expatriates and is composed of several clusters. High-rise apartments and office buildings, many still under construction, surround the place.
Malika, a housewife who lives in the area, said she heard about the "disconcerting" story from her neighbours and was concerned for her own child.
Security needed
"I think that wherever children gather, there should be security cameras," said the mother of a two-year-old girl.
Alex, a Cedre resident, said: "I'm concerned about the safety of my own two children after having heard about this incident."
In the online forum, a resident commented: "The scary thing is that the security will let anybody enter the compound as long as they give a villa number."
"This could be anyone. Just because we live in a compound that has guards does not mean that everyone living within our walls are of good nature. This could seriously be someone's neighbour whom people trust and would not suspect, I think that we are all very trusting, maybe a little too trusting sometimes," said another resident.
A comment was not immediately available from DSO.
Comments (1)
Share your views
|
Community Reports
-
Warming up to ‘Mobilise the Earth' theme
Dubai school dedicates a whole week to celebrating Earth Day with can-collection drives, sapling plantation and painting competition among others
-
Drivers using mobiles put others' lives at risk
Speeding is dangerous for the driver and other motorists
-
Supporting the needy with food supplies
Group of families engaged in serving isolated labour community hopes to motivate more people to help underprivileged and hungry
-
Leukaemia boy granted wish to meet footballer
Emirati meets hero Al Qahtani, Al Ain team
Latest news
- In Mind
- At times, I think of committing suicide
- Designer of a creative haven
- Fund to help Dubai taxi drivers' families
- New life-saving fleet of vehicles
- Friends of Syria share their vision of a nation
- Saud hails progress achieved by the nation
- Dubai Film and TV Commission set up
- Two women jailed for seven years for smuggling
- Clerk stabbed while trying to break up fight
- Beefed up imports welcomed across UAE
- Readers’ issues addressed
- Maid sentenced to death for murders
- Twitter assault defendants fined Dh5,000 each
- Warming up to ‘Mobilise the Earth' theme
