7-year-old left at waterpark during field trip

DORAVILLE, Ga. — A day camp's field trip turned into a nightmare for a Doraville family after the camp lost track of the family's 7-year-old for hours.

"I was praying God I say 'take me and leave him, please just take me and leave him,' my son!"said the child's father, Nasser Idris.

Idris' mind went to the worst scenario on Tuesday.

"I've never cried like when I lost him really," Idris said.

His 7-year-old son Rayan always looked forward to Tuesdays at the Lynwood Rec Center Day Camp.

"Every Tuesday, we go to the water park and we go to fun field trips," the second-grader said.

But this Tuesday was too much. He got lost and was unaccounted for nearly six hours.

"We all make mistake but that's a big mistake," said Idris, who doesn't hold any hard feelings.

Idris says the camp asked his wife to pick up their boys early since their 10-year-old autistic son, Maher, was becoming unruly. Apparently Maher knew what happened and was asking everyone, "Where is it?" The "it" he referred to was his little brother.

"At that point we start making phone calls and we call back to the pool," said Marvin Billups, deputy director of Dekalb County Recreation,

Parks and Cultural Affairs. "That was the last known place that he was."

Billups explained the oversight as the camp's headcount was off by one. Police were called in at both locations.

"I saw a police officer, but I didn't think he was looking for me," said the young Idris. "Because I was underwater or in the slides."

Rayan was located and reunited with his parents before 6 p.m. "She hugged me pretty tight," he said of his mom's embrace.

The little boy, unaware the whole time of the terror the adults who care for him were going through.

"He's home and safe with us, thank God!" explained a much relieved father.

WSBTV