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Parents leave child behind at Stuttgart airport

October 2, 2018

A 5-year-old girl was found wandering alone through the Stuttgart airport after her parents drove off without her. The parents traveled home separately and each assumed the child was riding with the other person.

https://p.dw.com/p/35sES
Deutschland BdT Lufthansa Piloten Streik
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Kastl

Airport security in Stuttgart brought a 5-year-old girl to the local police outpost after she was found walking around a terminal "unaccompanied and disoriented," German police said on Tuesday.

The airport staff made several PA announcements in a bid to find the parents, but with no success.

Read more: French parents mistakenly leave little girl in Germany

The child was apparently returning from a holiday with her parents. After leaving her plane, the parents each headed home in a separate car, leaving the girl behind. Each of them apparently believed the child was in the other car.

Some time later, however, the girl's mother called the airport and her father returned to the south German airport. Police said the girl was "safe and sound."

dj/msh (AFP, dpa)