JOHOR BARU (BERNAMA) - Two children were sitting inside a car when a man hijacked the vehicle in Taman Pulai Indah, Kangkar Pulai, on Thursday (Oct 12) morning, giving their mother and the authorities a scare.

However, the children - a girl and a boy - were later found unharmed.

Iskandar Puteri District Police chief ACP Noor Hashim Mohamed said that following the 7.45am incident, the female child was found on the roadside of the housing estate from where the vehicle was stolen, while the boy was left at the entrance of the housing estate.

"The mother of the children, who is a clinic assistant, was on the way to send her five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter to her father's home there," he said. "Upon arriving in front of her father's house, the woman got out of the car to take an umbrella from the boot of the car because it was raining."

"But suddenly a man entered the woman's car and locked the car door from inside. The man then fled with the woman's car with her children inside. The woman tried to cling on to the car but tripped and fell injuring her palm and right finger. She also lost a mobile phone," added ACP Noor Hashim.

"When the woman s younger brother was told of the incident, he tried to follow his sister's car and saw his niece abandoned on the roadside several lanes from the father's house. While the woman was lodging a report at the Kangkar Pulai police station, she received a call from her brother that an individual had found her son at the entrance of the housing estste," he said in a statement on Thursday.

ACP Noor Hashim said the stolen car was later found to have been involved in an accident with a lorry in Ulu Choh, Pontian, an hour after the incident. The man is believed to have fled with an accomplice, he said.

The case is being investigated under Section 395/363 of the Penal Code.