VELLORE: Three schoolgirls from a small village in the Karur district, who were passionate about BTS, the hugely popular Korean pop band, who embarked on a secret journey to meet them on Thursday were rescued from the Katpadi railway station in Vellore on Friday. The girls, who had left home on Thursday under the guise of going to school, were reunited with their parents on Saturday.
Passionate about the famous K-pop group BTS, the girls, all aged 13 and students of Class 8 in a state-run school, decided to travel all the way to Seoul, the South Korean capital, to meet their beloved stars, despite having little money and no passports.
After deciding to somehow meet the BTS stars, they shortlisted the seaports of Thoothukudi and Visakhapatnam to take a ship to South Korea. They eventually chose Visakhapatnam, said Vellore district CWC chairperson P Vethanayagam.
On January 4, after convincing their families that they were going to school, all three changed from their school uniforms in a temple in Karur. Then, with just savings of `14,000, they reached Chennai Central after taking a train from Erode, near Karur.
However, they were puzzled about the next step in their journey to Seoul. They took an auto costing `100 from Chennai Central and went to an unknown place within Chennai limits, where they tried to get hotel rooms. After being refused by two hotels, the third hotel agreed to provide them a room at a cost of `1,500 on Thursday night.
The girls’ parents, on noticing the children were missing, filed a missing persons complaint at the Thanthonimalai Police Station in Karur the day. Special teams were deployed to locate the missing girls.
The next morning, the girls decided to go back home and took a train to Erode. However, while travelling, all three got down to eat at Katpadi railway station and missed the train.
On observing the girls being clueless, the railway police interacted with them and alerted Childline authorities and Karur police. CWC rescued the trio and were reunited with their parents on Saturday.