Toddler in Tambunan found dead after falling into river

Rescuers bringing the toddler's body back to shore.

KOTA KINABALU: A toddler has been found dead after he was believed to have slipped and fallen into a river behind his house in Tambunan on Sunday (Jan 9) evening.

The two-year-old, the younger of two siblings, was thought to be playing inside the house before the 6pm incident.

“His parents were home and when they realised he was nowhere inside the house, they went around the compound to look for him,” said Tambunan fire station chief Desmond Ak Micky when contacted on Monday (Jan 10).

He said they went to the river behind their house at Kg Sungai Zon Kumaraling to search for him, and found his slippers by the riverbank.

The parents alerted the authorities at 6.53pm and a search operation was mounted.

Desmond said the boy’s body was only discovered by villagers at 10.05am on Monday, about 3km from where he was thought to have fallen in.

“The body was retrieved and the boy was pronounced dead by medical officials,” he said.

The body was later handed over to police for further action.