Two children were found this Monday at the Pinhal Novo train station in Palmela after they had fled the institution where they lived in Baixa da Baneira.
The youngest are four and eight years old. The elder was found without clothes on his upper body and with back injuries. The other child was barefoot.
The alarm was raised by the station’s security service. The children were found by famous people who arrived at the scene.
According to GNR, the incident was recorded, the cause of the injuries is still unknown. The Attorney General’s Office, the Social Security Service and the Commission for the Protection of Children and Youth (CPCJ) have already been informed of this case.
A statement from the COI Foundation explains that the escape was due to a disagreement between two brothers, an eight-year-old boy who escaped from the institution, and a ten-year-old boy. They also have a third brother, six years old, who was institutionalized in 2018. A ten-year-old boy suffers from an autism spectrum disorder, the foundation explains.
“As a result of the mutual aggression that took place that day, the youngest element was left with several scratches on his face, arm and neck,” the institution said in a statement. After a quarrel, the child tried to take his younger brother with him, but could not and fled with another four-year-old child.
An internal investigation was launched to determine who was responsible for the escape.