Father leaves 7-year-old son alone on Mount Fuji to continue hike, reports say
The man had taken his two boys on the trip but is said to have left one behind when he got tired.
A father has been reprimanded by police after leaving his seven-year-old son alone on Japan's highest mountain, Mount Fuji, for several hours. The boy was found on a bench in foggy and rainy conditions, over 2,000 meters above sea level. His father, 48, had told him to wait while he continued the hike with his elder son. Police tracked down the father at a higher point, around a three-hour hike away.
The boy was found at 07:30 local time, and officers were critical of his father's decision to leave his son behind. The family was on the Fujinomiya route, which takes around five hours to reach the summit and three hours to descend. Mount Fuji, an active volcano near Tokyo, has seen several climbing mishaps in recent years, including the rescue of a 99-year-old woman and a university student who went outside of the official climbing season to retrieve a lost phone.
Written by urgent.news from BBC News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
Also reported by 5 other outlets
- Japanese dad ditches 7-year-old for hours to climb Mt Fuji freemalaysiatoday.com
- Japan dad ditches 7-year-old for hours to climb Mt Fuji nst.com.my
- Japanese dad ditches 7-year-old for hours to climb Mount Fuji koreatimes.co.kr
- Japan dad ditches 7-year-old for hours to climb Mt Fuji channelnewsasia.com
- Father leaves 7-year-old son alone on Mount Fuji to continue hike, reports say bbc.co.uk
