70 children lost at Cape Town beaches still waiting for parents to claim them

70 children lost at Cape Town beaches still waiting for parents to claim them
(Image credit: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

On New Year's Day, 200,000 people hit the beaches of Cape Town, South Africa, including 500 children who were lost by their parents.

By the end of the day, about 70 still hadn't been picked up, the Los Angeles Times reports. The children, mostly between the ages of 3 and 7, spent the night at various police stations across the city. Authorities are using the media to beg the parents to please come get their children, while angry residents are turning to Twitter to question how so many kids could still be unclaimed: "70 children?" one person tweeted. "What kind of parenting is this?"

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.