Kidnapping of child foiled
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the attempted kidnapping of an 11-year-old student from the Strathspey Primary School yesterday morning.
The student, a resident of the East Coast Demerara village of Vigilance, was snatched from a classroom in the school by two armed men around 10:25 am yesterday, a release from the Police Public Relations Office said.
The statement said that after seizing the girl, the abductors ran in the direction of the embankment with the student struggling and screaming.
At this point one of the kidnappers, said the police, was struck by a car, but then got up and ran away.
Sources told this newspaper that the motorist involved had seen the girl struggling and had challenged the men in his car.
After the collision, the girl managed to escape, and the abductors fired on the driver, who had to take evasive action. They then fled, and it was when they saw the police approaching that they opened fire on them too.
The police statement said that with the assistance of a GDF patrol, they had exchanged fire with the men - who were fleeing through a short cut to Buxton - in tbe Bladen Hall Multilateral school compound.
The kidnappers, however, escaped.
The victim, said the police, was subsequently returned to her home, and the bicyles on which the men arrived were now in police custody.   

Thursday, March 20, 2003