Police are questioning a man in connection with the suspected abduction Saturday of an 8-year-old girl who was found safe Thursday in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, they said Friday. Further information about the man was not provided.
In interviews with Sachika Hata, a second-grader at an elementary school, police learned she was forced into a car by the kidnapper and at one point made to ride in the trunk, sources said Friday.
The girl was quoted by police as saying her abductor told her "Don't be spotted by police."
Investigators took the girl to the park where she is believed to have been abducted and to the street in the ward's Rinkaicho district where she was found safe early Thursday, in an effort to trace the route the abductor took during the 4 1/2 days she was missing, they said.
They are also checking video monitors at local supermarkets where the abductor, whom Hata described as a man around 40 years old, may have shopped, they added.
Hata disappeared shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday after she left for the park near her home. She was stopped by a man and forced into his car in the park's parking lot, police said.
She is believed to have been driven around during her ordeal, they added.
The girl quoted the abductor as telling her "Don't cry" and "Don't be spotted," according to police, who said he shoved her into the trunk.
She told police the man held her hand when he went into supermarkets.