Toddlers fall to their deaths in China mall when parent loses grip near balcony

Two toddlers, aged two and three, have died after plunging four storeys at a shopping mall in Tianjin, China on Monday night (Feb 27).

Chinese media had initially reported that their mother had been holding them near a glass balcony when she lost her grip on them. Later reports said it was "a parent" who was holding them at the time. The children - a boy and a girl - fell to the ground on the first floor and died instantly, Sina reported.

Video footage which purportedly shows the children's kin kneeling near their bodies and wailing in grief, has been shared on Chinese social media sites.

In a similar incident in Uzbekistan this month, a young mother accidentally dropped her baby off the side of the escalator when her dress got caught, and her body jerked forward as a result.

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Last year, a four-month-old baby also died when his grandmother lost her balance in a Shanghai mall, and dropped him off the side of an escalator. He plummeted three floors down.

 

Read also: Video captures young girl's death fall from Kunming mall's escalator

ljessica@sph.com.sg