The three-year-old boy is under treatment at the National Hospital of Paediatrics. Photo vietnamnet.vn

HÀ NỘI — Police in Hà Nam Province have arrested a 25-year-old man for the attempted murder of a three-year-old boy after beating him unconscious and hiding him in a freezer.

Police said the incident happened at about 3.20pm on August 13 at the suspect’s milk bubble tea shop in Chính Lý Commune, Lý Nhân District in northern Hà Nam Province.

Preliminary information shows that on the afternoon of August 13, the three-year-old boy walked from his house to the milk bubble tea shop of Nguyễn Trường Giang next door. There were no guests at the shop.

The boy drank a cup of milk tea from the table. The suspect told the boy to behave so he could do the cleaning.

When the suspect went to the counter to clean up, the boy followed, took cookies and sat on a camp bed eating. The boy kept asking Giang to play with him.

Annoyed by the boy’s questions, Giang took a metal pestle, used to smash ice, and hit the back of the boy’s head. The boy fell off the bed, hit his head on the floor and cried out.

Giang tried to quieten him, but the boy cried louder and called for his mother. Giang covered the boy’s mouth with his left hand and squeezed and held his neck on the floor with his right hand. One minute later, the boy fell quiet.

Giang went to the door to look outside when the boy shouted: “Grandpa, mom, he hit me.”

The suspect then used a rope to tighten around the back of the boy’s neck, covered the boy’s mouth, strangled him and banged his head on the floor until he was unconscious.

He then picked the boy up, stuffed him in a cardboard box and put him in a freezer. He closed the shop and left on his motorbike.

Giang received a phone call from the boy’s grandfather asking if his grandson had visited the shop, Giang said the boy had come, but he hadn’t see him since.

The boy’s family broke into Giang’s shop to look for the boy and found him locked in the freezer. He was quickly taken to the hospital for emergency treatment.

The provincial Criminal Police Department, in cooperation with Lý Nhân District’s Police, caught Giang trying to flee to Hà Nội.

The boy is being treated at the National Hospital of Paediatrics.

Nguyễn Trường Giang, 27, has been arrested for attempting to murder a three-year-old boy after beating him unconscious and hiding him in a freezer. Photo plo.vn

Nguyễn Văn Thược, the boy’s grandfather, recalled searching for his grandson.

Thược told VN Express that he returned home after a meeting on August 13 and couldn't find his grandchild.

He rushed to his son’s house and six neighbours nearby and urged his wife and daughter-in-law to search but couldn’t find him.

Thược said he thought that the boy may have been kidnapped.

At the same time, his son was checking Thược’s security cameras. Footage showed that at 3.20 pm, the boy went into the shop and didn’t come out.

At 4.15 pm, Giang locked the door and rode his motorbike towards Châu Giang Bridge.

All family members returned to the 35-square-metre milk tea shop. Thược called Giang after 5pm who told him that his grandson was not in the shop.

Thược made dozens for further information, but Giang did not pick up.

The family carefully rechecked the camera footage to ensure the boy didn’t leave. Thược decided to unlock the shop with a door cutter and a hammer.

Đặng Trung Thìn, a 27-year-old neighbour, found the boy hidden in a carton box in the freezer. The boy's heart was still beating, but his body was cold and not moving.

He was taken to the hospital emergency room immediately.

The doctor said the boy was hospitalised with respiratory failure and hypothermia and suffered bleeding, scratches on his head, face, and neck and a swollen tongue.

Thược said he had leased Giang the milk bubble tea shop for VNĐ1.4 million a month since early April.

He added that the family did not have any conflict with Giang and did not see any abnormal behaviour. This was the first time the boy went to Giang’s shop.

The child is now in stable condition.

The suspect confessed to the crime. — VNS