Boy's 3km walkabout shocks frantic parents

Tamour Shah is reunited with his runaway 5-year-old son Salman. Photo / Dean Purcell

A 5-year-old West Auckland boy put his mother through the most terrifying moments of her life when he went missing after an argument yesterday.

For almost 40 minutes, Sonita Ahmadian fought off thoughts of her son being kidnapped or drowning in the creek near their home in Bolton St, Blockhouse Bay.

Police swarmed the area and combed the family home but Salman Shah was found by his father chatting to a man nearly 3km from home.

Minutes after his safe return, a relieved but teary-eyed Ms Ahmadian said her adventurous youngest son was supposed to meet his cousin to play in a nearby park at midday but had been growing impatient.

Ms Ahmadian said Salman disappeared about 10am - minutes after she sent him outside to cool down after he argued he wanted to go "now".

"When he doesn't listen, I don't smack, I say: 'Go and sit outside for five minutes.' I was so scared," she said.

"There is a creek. I thought: 'He's fallen down in the creek'."

Salman's father Tamour Shah said the family had assumed Salman was playing outside.

"He was arguing with his mum. He wanted to go to his cousin's. It was quite early - we hadn't even had breakfast and then he went outside ... after five minutes we went outside.

"We couldn't find him ... we started looking for him around the school and side streets.

"We couldn't find him and so after probably 20 minutes, we rang the police because he was nowhere around."

Trying to think where his son would go, Mr Shah drove towards his brother's house in Rua Rd, Glen Eden.

He found Salman walking along Titirangi Rd, talking to a man, having almost reached his cousin's home. "I thought 'that's the last place that he knows because he's not in the school, not in the playground'.

"So I went the way that I would normally go in the car. He was walking with a lawn mower guy."

Mr Shah was shocked his son had ventured so far from his home.

"I'm just surprised ... he had to cross the street in three places."

Asked whether he would go walking again, Salman looked down, shook his head and said "no".

His quiet, home-loving 6-year-old brother Ilyas spent the entire ordeal trawling Trade Me looking for a Spider-Man costume.