Accidental incursion: Russian boy strolls into China

A bracing winter walk seemed harmless enough – until it nearly landed a nine-year-old boy in prison for illegally entering China.

The junior territorial incursion took place outside the Siberian border village of Middle Argunsk, which sits right on to the Russian-Chinese frontier. On the day in question, the boy was helping out his father, an ice-fisherman. Eventually, the monotonous activity began to bore the energetic youngster, and the lad decided to take a walk across the white desert. Dad was too absorbed in fishing to see that his son had taken off in a dangerous direction – towards the state border. When he finally raised his eyes from the frozen river, the boy had already left the country.When the penny dropped, the father leapt up and went in pursuit of his inquisitive offspring. Having retrieved his son, the pair quickly collected the fishing gear and made away, hoping the incident would go unnoticed. The fresh snow, however, gave the trespassers away – a voluntary patrol saw their footprints on the “wrong” side of the frontier and reported them to border guards. The guards soon appeared at the door of the home of the father and son – to the transgressors’ utter surprise. Luckily for them, the guards stopped short of launching a criminal case into the incident; a preventive conversation, the officers thought, would be more than enough.