On May 4, Lao Cai Provincial Police informed about the functional forces promptly finding 3 missing children in Pha Long commune.
Accordingly, at about 7:30 am on May 2, 2026, Pha Long Commune Police received a report from baby V.L. P (born in 2008) about 3 young children in the family including V.A. S (born in 2012), V.S.T (born in 2015) and V.S.K (born in 2020) being missing from about 8 pm on May 1.
Immediately after receiving the news, Pha Long Commune Police urgently mobilized forces including 8 officers and soldiers and 6 members of the security and order force at the grassroots level, organized zoning and deployed searches throughout the night in rainy weather and complex mountainous terrain.
After more than 2 hours of effort, functional forces discovered all 3 children temporarily staying at a people's swidden farming shack, about 3km from their house. The children were taken to the Ta Ngai Cho Elementary School area for care, psychological reassurance and safe handover to their families.
Through initial verification, the children's parents all went to work far away, leaving 4 siblings to take care of each other. In the afternoon of May 1st, due to school break, the 3 young children invited each other to go to the fields to play. In the evening, they encountered heavy rain, so they could not find their way home and got lost. Meanwhile, the older brother at home thought the children were going to relatives' houses, so he did not report it in time.
The incident is a warning about the risk of unsafety for young children due to lack of management and supervision by adults, especially in highland areas with complex terrain.
