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 has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.