Toddler escapes through cat-flap

A two-year-old toddler slipped through a cat-flap at an Auckland house, and eluded a frantic search by parents, neighbours and police before being finally found unharmed a kilometre away on a beach just before nightfall.

Ben Jurd from Timaru was on holiday his grandparents home at the North Shore suburb of Birkenhead Point, last week.

"Probably a minute had gone by when we noticed he wasn't there and saw the cat door had been opened. Parents Daniel Jurd and Janine Lander told the Sunday Star-Times. "He's fast on his feet."

They don't know how he reached the beach near the Chelsea Sugar factory but think he may have walked through a private property after escaping through the cat-flap.

About 30 neighbours joined the family and police in the search before he was found with only minor scratches and bruises

- NZPA