HE HEARD someone shout for help.

Mr Roger Tia Sing rushed towards the pond.

Someone had pulled out a young boy.

The boy had fallen into an unused pond at a fishing village on Sungei Tengah Road near Choa Chu Kang on Sunday night.

When Mr Tia got there, several people were crowding round.

Someone asked if anybody knew CPR.

Mr Tia, 37, a cleaner at the fishing village, told The New Paper last night: 'When I saw the boy, he wasn't moving and was very white. It looked like he had been in the water a long time.'

He said that he performed CPR on the boy.

He added: 'Water kept coming out of his mouth. He had a pulse but it was very weak. I tried everything but it wasn't enough.'

The boy, Qing Sheng, 3, was rushed to the National University Hospital in an ambulance.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital later.

The evening had began innocently enough at Farmart Centre - a fish and prawn village, where customers can catch prawns for a fee.

The boy had reportedly been dining at the seafood restaurant there with his parents, 1-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister.

When the family finished dinner around 8pm, they realised that Qing Sheng was nowhere to be seen.

According to a worker at the centre, who wanted to be known only as Mr Wu, the mother then frantically started searching for her son.

He told The New Paper: 'The mother was running around the place after dinner. She went around the entire place twice or thrice, but she couldn't find him.'

Frantic, she started shouting, 'I can't find my kid', patrons at the restaurant told Lianhe Wanbao.

Mr Wu said that a facility officer from the centre then joined in the search.

'The mother mentioned that the boy liked to look at fishes, so they went to look for the boy in the aquariums, the fish spa and in the toilets,' said Mr Wu.

They didn't find him. Then, the mother's worst fears came true. Someone at the prawn pond had spotted a figure floating in the unused fish pond right beside it.

Mr Tia told Lianhe Wanbao that someone then helped pulled the boy out of the water.

'I immediately went forward. I saw a boy on the grass laying unconscious. He was wearing a striped T-shirt and khaki-coloured bermudas.

'There was water coming out of his mouth,' said MrTia.

By then, the boy's mother was crying uncontrollably, reported Lianhe Wanbao.

The facility officer, who was helping the boy's mother, then called the paramedics and the child was rushed to the hospital.

The boy drowned in one of the two unused fish ponds which are more than a metre deep. They are right beside the prawn pond.

The fish ponds are in a fenced up area, separate from the prawn pond, which was open, and in operation.

However, there are gaps in the fencing.

The lights around the fish ponds were switched off.

The two fish ponds have been left unused for more than two years, Mr Wu told The New Paper.

'The lights near the fish ponds are switched off to deter anyone from fishing there illegally,' he said.

Mr Wu said Farmart now plans to fence up the entire fish pond area thoroughly.

Yesterday, when The New Paper visited Farmart Centre, we found that the prawn pond also had ceased operations.

Mr Wu said this was because their business had suffered badly as news of the drowning got around.

Customers usually can catch prawns for $13 an hour.

The area around the prawn pond has also been sectioned off with a rope.

A waitress on duty at the seafood restaurant where the family was having dinner, said: 'The family has been coming here for dinner for about a year now. They come about once a month. I see them all the time.

'The boy always wonders off to play on his own every time they are here.'