Rescue teams are searching for a seven-year-old boy missing for two days on a mountain range in Japan, after his parents abandoned him “as punishment.”
The area near in Nanae-cho, Hokkaido, in the country’s north is known to be home to wild bears.
A Hokkaido Prefectural Police spokesman told CNN that the boy, Yamato Tanooka, first went missing at around 4 p.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) on Saturday.
He said police had received an emergency call from his parents at around 6 p.m., and were initially told that the boy had gone missing while on a day trip to the area with his parents and sister to collect wild vegetables.
The parents later admitted to police they had left the boy alone in the mountains while on the way home to punish him for throwing stones at passing cars and people.
The parents immediately drove back to where they had left Yamato,ut he was no longer there, according to the police spokesman.
More than 150 members of the local police and fire department have been searching for the boy since Saturday, but he has not yet been found.