KUALA LUMPUR: With his milk bottle in his hand, a three-year-old boy climbed onto a public bus on his own and went on a more than 10km ride before a good Samaritan brought him to a police station.

Bystanders recalled seeing the boy, who was wearing a red shirt, at the bus stop near the Sri Sabah Flats here at noon yesterday.

"A woman in her 40s noticed that the boy was alone and unattended.

"She then carried the boy when she got off the bus near Jalan Tun Hussien and took him to a police station to lodge a report," Cheras acting OCPD Supt Abdul Rahim Hamzah Othman Supt Abdul Rahim said.

Police took photographs of the boy before handing him over to the Welfare Department in Jalan Pahang. His photographs were distributed at the Sri Sabah flats area where he was first spotted.

At 5.30pm, a couple came to the Cheras district police station claiming that their child had gone missing while the husband was washing his car.

"We could not reunite the boy with his parents as the welfare centre had already closed. We will return to the department today and send the boy back," Supt Abdul Rahim said.

However, he said police would be conducting a DNA test to confirm if the couple were indeed the boy's parents. Supt Abdul Rahim said if the test was positive, police would take action against the couple for negligence.