A 12-year-old boy who went missing from Bengaluru on Sunday was traced to a metro station in Hyderabad this morning after a request on social media prompted a frantic search for him. The two metro cities are about 570 km apart.

Parinav, a Class 6 student of Deens Academy, managed to escape the cops trying to track him for three days and by the time they reached the places he was spotted, he had already left for another.

He was seen leaving a coaching centre in Whitefield around 11 am and then at a petrol pump near Yemlur around 3 pm. He was last spotted deboarding a bus that evening in Bengaluru’s Majestic bus terminus, the fulcrum that connects the city to every other corner in Karnataka and beyond.

His worried parents took to social media to seek help in locating their child. They initiated an online request to find their child along with a CCTV footage showing him walking across a road.

This prompted a frantic search by social media users with a few even volunteering to physically visit Majestic. The boy’s mother had also posted a video urging him to return home.

His posters were widely circulated online and this led a Bengaluru resident visiting Hyderabad identify the boy in the metro.

This is when the social media stepped in. Even as a few people volunteered to go physically to Majestic, many did what they do best – circulate the posters of the boy online.

When confronted, the boy confirmed his identity and was stopped at the Nampally metro station in Hyderabad on Wednesday, three nights after he went missing.

His parents have been informed and are on their way to Hyderabad.

Parinav’s father Sukesh, an engineer, said he has no idea how he ended up there.

“I really want to thank all those nameless strangers who helped us in finding my boy. Without his picture being splashed all over, the person in Hyderabad would never have thought to stop a boy and ask,” he added.