A young Lebanese boy, Rayan Kanaan, was kidnapped on Wednesday while he was with his mother in a market in Halat in the Byblos region.
Two people in a grey Kia Picanto car with dark windows stopped, snatched the child from his mother, pushed him into their car, and drove away.
According to public information shared by local media, the child’s father works in a jewelry shop and the kidnappers demanded a ransom of $250,000 to release his son.
On Thursday, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi announced that the Information Division of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) was able to free the child from his kidnappers and return him safely to his family.
بجهودٍ جبارة تمكنت شعبة المعلومات في المديرية العامة لقوى الامن الداخلي من تحرير الطفل ريان كنعان وإعادته سالماً. مرة جديدة نهنىء ابطال الشعبة وقوى الامن الداخلي على المهام التي يقومون بها حماية لمجتمعم. @LebISF #بوجودكم_نحنا_بأمان
— Bassam Mawlawi (@MawlawiBassam) February 3, 2022
No details were given as of yet in regards to the kidnappers and their arrests.
Crimes of theft have alarmingly increased in Lebanon in recent times, and it is even more alarming that a kidnapping crime comes to add to the general state of insecurity in the country.
