A 10-year-old boy in Malaysia was found wandering around a mall in Johor Bahru after he decided not to return home after school on Jul. 23.

Police in the Setia Indah town received a report stating that the boy did not return home after school ended at 12:30pm, according to a Facebook post on Jul. 23 by the Setia Indah police station.

According to Berita Harian Malaysia, the South Johor Bahru Regional police chief said the student's mother reported him missing after the boy did not board his school bus home.

A police team immediately carried out an investigation and search after receiving the report.

At 4:30pm, the boy was found safe wandering around Aeon Mall Tebrau City, having walked for three kilometres to get there from his school.

The police then called the boy's parents to come down to the station to retrieve him.

Allegedly bullied

Malaysia news outlet Guang Ming Daily reported that the boy did not want to take the school bus home as he was being bullied by his classmates at school and wanted to relax.

The boy's mother told reporters that, after missing the bus, he was unsure what to do, and decided to walk to the nearby shopping mall.

Once she learned that her son had been found, she rushed to the station to pick him up.

This search happened after a six-year-old girl went missing in Johor Bahru on Jul. 20.

The girl was found on Jul. 23 at 4am in a budget hotel 390km away from Johor Bahru. A 31-year-old man was arrested.

Four others were arrested earlier, on Jul. 22, in connection to the case. It is being investigated as an abduction, and under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017.

Top photos via Balai Polis Setia Indah/Facebook