Three teenage girls from Karur in Tamil Nadu were intercepted near the Katpadi railway station in Vellore on Friday, January 5, while they were embarking on their journey to Seoul, South Korea, to meet their idols from the Korean pop band BTS. The trio was reportedly introduced to BTS by one of their neighbours, and soon became fans of the band. They eventually decided to use the internet to sketch out a plan to reach Seoul, with an amount of Rs 14,000 they had saved up in their piggy banks. The girls, all 13 years old, are from lower middle class families and study in a local panchayat school.

The trio’s plan was to first reach Erode, from where they would board a train to Chennai. From Chennai they were to reach Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, from where they would in turn board a ship to South Korea, all at a budget of Rs 14,000.

They left their houses on January 4 and reached Erode, and boarded a train to Chennai. They tried to avail hotel rooms in Chennai, but were denied rooms at two hotels. The teenagers eventually found a hotel that was willing to accommodate them. 

On January 5, they boarded a train to Visakhapatnam from Chennai, but missed their train after they got down at Katpadi junction to buy food.  Since their families had filed missing complaints by then, the police identified and rescued the girls near Katpadi junction. 

The police had sent them to a government-run children’s home as per the instructions of the Vellore District Child Welfare Committee. They were then counselled on January 6 before being sent back home.