Police and locals combed the woods looking for him, but it was a 78-year-old volunteer from a neighbouring region who stumbled upon the toddler on Wednesday morning. “I shouted ‘Yo-chan’,” Haruo Obata told local television, a red towel wrapped around his head against the summer heat. “He replied ‘yes, here’ and there he was,” added Obata, a retiree who said he regularly volunteers in disaster relief efforts. The toddler was sitting on a rock, with his bare feet in a small puddle of water in front of him, Obata said. “That this volunteer would come all the way here, all we can do is offer thanks from the bottom of our hearts,” his grandfather told local media.

Source: The Guardian August 15, 2018 09:22 UTC