PASIR GUDANG (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A mother has been having sleepless nights after her 12-year-old daughter failed to return home following an outing with a boy she met online.

Pet groomer Lee Yih Loon, 37, said her daughter Chang Xing Hui had told her that she would have an early birthday celebration with her friends at a shopping complex in Johor Baru.

She said Xing Hui told her that her friend's mother would drive her to the shopping complex.

She called her daughter while she was on her way to the party to make sure everything was all right.

"I was surprised to hear men's voices while talking to her and this was when I sensed something was wrong," Madam Lee said during a press conference organised by Permas Selatan MCA division chairman Shium Chan Teck here on Monday (Aug 15).

She immediately asked Xing Hui to return home but the girl refused, and Madam Lee has been unable to reach her daughter after the last phone conversation between them at around 4.10pm.

"I'm worried for her safety and I suspect that she befriended a 15-year-old boy known only as Yi on Facebook," said Madam Lee.

Johor Baru South OCPD Asst Comm Sulaiman Salleh said it is being treated as a missing persons case.