Police helped a 10-year-old Chinese-American girl found walking alone on a roadside in Chonburi province on Wednesday night on her way to Bangkok reunite with her father.

The girl said she was heading for Suvarnabhumi airport to try to catch a flight to see her mother in China, according to police.

They said the girl was found by a good Samaritan,  later identified as Poommiphat Chaichana who was driving on a dimly-lit road in Chonburi when she spotted her trudging alone with a knapsack on her back.

Poommiphat  later told reporters that he stopped the girl and tried unsuccessfully to communicate with her since she didn’t speak Thai.  He later had his employer on his phone to talk to the girl who said she intended to talk all the way to Suvarnabhumi airport, which is about 70 kilometres away, hoping to catch a flight to China.

“She said she missed her mother and wanted to see her,” Poommiphat said.

Poommiphat later alerted police who took her to a local police station.  Tourist police later contacted her father who subsequently reunited with the girl.

Poommiphat, who posted clips of his encounter with the girl on Tik Tok, quoted the girl as saying that she started walking from Jomtien, a well-known resort town,  where she lived and was about to enter the Chonburi-Bangkok motorway when he found her.

“It would be too dangerous for her to use the motorway. So I decided to stop her,” he said.