5 Mumbai schoolgirls go missing,  all traced after 24 hours

Mumbai: Five girls, students of a South Mumbai school, who had gone missing were traced by Saturday evening and all of them were safe, police said.

The girls studying in class 8th, did not return to their homes from their school in Colaba in South Mumbai on Friday afternoon, following which their parents approached police.

Mid-term exam results were declared on Friday and these girls had failed in two or three subjects each, according to their teachers.

As a search operation began, four of the girls were spotted at the Kurla railway station this afternoon by a constable of Cuffe Parade police station, said the police official.

The fifth girl returned home on her own in the evening, he said.

The girls told the police that they first went to the Marine Drive in South Mumbai, then to the Hanging Garden and later to Thane before returning to the city.

The official did not reveal why the girls decided not to go home after the school hours.

None of them was carrying a mobile phone which made the search harder, he said.