A five-year-old child died yesterday after falling in an uncovered manhole in the capital’s Shyampur area.
Fire fighters tried to rescue the boy, Ismail Hossain Nirob, for almost four hours, but their efforts were made difficult by the strong water flow inside the sewer pipes.
Five members of the fire fighting unit searched for Nirob since afternoon, finally finding him unconscious around 8:30pm.
The doctors of Dhaka Medical College Hospital declared him dead around 9pm. DMCH Medical Officer Sohel Rana confirmed the news to the Dhaka Tribune.
Earlier, Fire Service and Civil Defence Director General Ali Ahmed Khan told the Dhaka Tribune that the boy was found in an unconscious state from Shyampur Bazar sluice gate, which is adjacent to the launch terminal.
According to Bhajan Kumar Sarker, the duty officer at Fire Service and Civil Defence control room, Nirob fell inside an uncovered manhole around 4:20pm. Fire fighters rushed to the spot immediately after being informed, he added.
The victim’s mother Nazma Begum said: “My son was playing beside the manhole with two other children. At one stage of playing, one of his friends pushed him into the ground, but unfortunately he fell into the manhole.”
Nazma’s neighbour Jahirul Islam said: “Hearing the cry of Nazma, we rushed in and called the fire fighters.”
In a similar accident in December last year, a four-year-old boy named Jihad was found dead inside an abandoned 600ft deep water pump pipe at capital’s Shahjahanpur Railway Colony, almost 23 hours after he fell into it.