Boy 4, falls 9 storeys to death at Yishun block

Boy 4, falls 9 storeys to death at Yishun block

It was a sight she hoped she would never have to see - a young boy lying motionless in a pool of blood at the bottom of her block of flats.

Madam Lela V., 58, a housewife, spotted the boy's body at the foot of Block 165, Yishun Ring Road, while she was on her way to the market yesterday morning.

It was only when she went closer that she realised she knew him. He was her neighbour and had just moved in with his family recently.

"The family was very friendly and would say 'Hi' whenever we met in the lift or corridor," Madam Lela told The New Paper.

"Just over the weekend, I saw the children happily helping to clean the house and throw (out) the rubbish."

The New Paper understands that the four-year-old is believed to have fallen from a window of his family's ninth-storey flat.

It is not known if he was alone at home when he fell.

Madam Lela, who lives two doors away, said the boy's parents work and she believes that the grandmother takes care of the children during the day.

When TNP approached the family at their home, which was full of cardboard boxes, they declined to be interviewed.

UNPACKING

According to neighbours, the family had moved in almost two weeks ago and were still in the middle of unpacking.

The windows of the flat also did not have any grilles.

Madam Lela said: "I was in the lift with the father earlier. He was crying and knocking his head with his fist. It really is so sad."

A woman and two boys, whom neighbours said were the grandmother and older brothers of the dead boy, arrived at the scene at around 11am to identify the body.

Relatives and friends of the family also started arriving at the block shortly after, but they declined to speak to the media.

A neighbour told Shin Min Daily News that the boy was found in his pyjamas. She said that he might have been looking for his family after waking up in the morning when the accident happened.

A Singapore Civil Defence Force spokesman said that they were alerted to the incident at 8.34am.

The boy was pronounced dead by paramedics on arrival, he added.

Police said they received a call at 8.33am requesting assistance and they are investigating the case as an unnatural death.


This article was first published on October 7, 2015.
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