The Search Continues: Missing 7-Year-Old Japanese Boy Left By Parents In The Woods, Still Missing

About 130 rescuers have been searching for the boy was went missing after his parents left him in the woods as punishment for misbehaving. Heavy rain and a lack of clues that could point to whereabouts of the child held up Japanese rescuers as they go into day for of the search.

The search site, a mountainous area near Nanae-cho, Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan's four main islands is isolated, dense, and is said to be home to wild bears. The Japan Times reported that the boy's parents told the police that he got lost while the family was out walking in the area to pick wild vegetables.

After a while, the boy's father 44-year-old, Takayuki Tanooka eventually admitted that his wife and himself left their son in the mountains after scolding him on their way home from a park to punish him for throwing stones at cars on a nearby road. "The parents left the boy in the mountains as punishment," the police spokesman said. "They said they went back to the site immediately, but the boy was no longer there."

However, according to CNN, thunderstorms forced rescuers to stop their 10-hour search on Tuesday for missing Yamato Tanooka. An official gave a brief assessment because of the time the lightly dressed boy has been exposed to the elements. "The crucial 72 hours' limit for the survival has passed," rescue team spokesman Satoshi Saito said. "The outlook could be severe ... but we can do nothing but continue looking with a hope in mind."

An article in The Washington Post said that it only took Yamato a few minutes to vanish after his parents abandoned him by the side of the road to punish him. By the time his parents came back for him, he was nowhere to be found.

Two hunters have already joined the rescue team after teams thought they found bear droppings. However, Saito concluded that the sign came from animals smaller than bears.

The search started at dawn Tuesday and was extended along the road north toward Mount Komagatake, a 1,131-meter (3,710-feet) volcano, from the point where the boy was left, according to the officials. Officials say that they are already starting to get confused. Saito said the expansion of the search toward the mountain was at the parents' request.

"We do not think the little boy chose to go into the forest, so we focus on the area along the road connecting from where he was left," Saito said.