MAKKAH, 26 May 2008 — A Chadian father beat his 11-year-old son to death for losing his mobile phone and going out late at night, said Abdul Muhsin Al-Maiman, spokesman for Makkah police.

Al-Maiman added that eyewitnesses reported the boy playing with friends close to his home on Um Al-Qura Street when the father came and took him home where he subjected him to a beating using an electric cable. The father then left home to look for his son’s mobile; on his return he found the boy had died. Police have arrested the man and taken the child’s body for an autopsy.