Cuttack, March 12: Five children, who had reportedly gone missing from Chauliaganj here, returned home this evening.

The children, all in the age group of 10 to 12 years, are students of Sita Devi Joglekar Oriya Medium School at Annapurnanagar. Suraj Kumar Banswar (11), Chandral Sreshta (11), Dambarudhar Sahoo (12), Tushar Singh (12) and Trilochan Behera (11) went missing yesterday.

“Around 6 pm, we received a phone call that my brother and four other children, who were wandering near the railway station, have been detained by local youths of Gandarpur area. We rushed there and met my brother,” said Sanjay Sahoo, brother of Dambarudhar.

“I am happy that my son has come back safe,” said a visibly relieved Surendra, father of Dambarudhar.

Dambarudhar said they had first gone to Puri yesterday and made the night halt there.

“We had planned to go to Tirupati today, but we missed the train. So we came back to Cuttack and were planning to go to Howrah. But we caught by a group of youth from near the railway station,” he said.

“They had gone to Puri and returned safe,” said inspector-in-charge of Chauliaganj police station Sarat Chandra Mohapatra, ruling out kidnap.

Dambarudhar and four other children had left their home yesterday afternoon and did not return.

Dambarudhar called home around 11pm and informed his family that he was going to Mumbai with his friends and another youth. The call was made from a public phone booth at Jatni.

On receiving complaint, Chauliaganj police began an investigation.

“We alerted all government railway police stations and railway protection force officials, who are also working on the matter. All the trains plying through Bhuban-beswar, Khurda Road and Berhampur were being checked,” said Mohapatra.