Four-year-old boy drowns trying to retrieve ball from drain

SIBU: A four-year-old boy drowned after trying to retrieve a football from a drain near his home.

Sibu OCPD Asst Comm Stanley Jonathan Ringgit said Indra Agus was playing with the ball at the back of his house in an oil palm estate in Sungai Assan at about 3.30pm on Thursday (Feb 14).

"When the ball was kicked into the 5ft-deep drain, he went down to retrieve it. 

"However, he fell inside and drowned," said ACP Stanley.

"Workers at the oil palm estate only found him two hours later. By then, he was already dead.

"We received a call from a medical assistant of a health clinic in Bawang Assan at about 5.40pm. 
The body was sent to the clinic by workers of the oil palm estate and was confirmed dead at 5.30pm by the medical assistant," he added on Friday (Feb 15).

ACP Stanley said doctors at Sibu Hospital found no injury or bruises on the victim's body.

No foul play was suspected and the case had been classified as sudden death, he added.