Residents of Tashkent were again frightened by the kidnapping of children.

Unknown individuals have once again spread panic messages on social media claiming the emergence of a “kidnapping gang”.

The story is accompanied by the description that criminals try to trick children into cars, mainly operating near schools and in the courtyards of apartment buildings.

The Tashkent City Police Department officially announced that the reports are fake. There is no gang of kidnappers. Over the past five years, not a single case of child abduction has been recorded in the capital.

Dear residents and guests of our city! We ask you not to believe or spread unfounded and unconfirmed information. We remind you that liability has been established for the dissemination of false information, — press service of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of Tashkent.

In May 2024, similar reports appeared on social media in the Samarkand region, and the local Department of Internal Affairs also exposed the reports. In June of the same year, a real child abductor was found in the Namangan region, a man previously convicted several times took an 11-year-old girl into his house, which the neighbor noticed in time, the woman appealed to law enforcement.