Ananova:

A nine-year-old boy escaped from kidnappers in China by driving away in the car they had stolen from his mother.

The boy and his mother had been stopped and held up by robbers as they were driving to their home in Haikou city.

"I was pulled out by them, and thrown onto the curb," the mother later told police.

Passers-by said they didn't help because they thought it was a domestic dispute, reports Nanhai Net.

"We realised she had been robbed when she called police, saying her son had been kidnapped and her car stolen," said a witness, named Wang.

But, unexpectedly, police received another report two hours later saying a small boy driving a car had hit an agricultural vehicle.

Yang, a witness to the second incident, said: "A small boy got out of the car with his hands shaking and said: "Some people stole my mom's car, and I drove it away when they weren't paying attention"."

The boy was later reunited with his parents who are refusing to comment while police investigate the kidnapping.