Eight-year-old dies after wall collapses at Baling home

BALING: An eight-year-old boy was crushed to death when a brick wall fell on him in his house in Kampung Padang Lalang, Tawar near here on Monday.

Baling district police chief Supt Shamsudin Mamat said in the 12.30pm incident, Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Mohd Sholehhuddin was playing with his brother, Wan Mohd Baihaqi, 4, in the back area of their house where kitchen renovation work was going on.

"At the time of the incident, the victim's mother was cooking and had repeatedly warned the two children not to play in the area where construction work was being carried out, but the children ignored her instructions." he said in a statement on Tuesday (Feb 13).

"The victim's mother heard a loud sound from where the children were playing and found that a wall had collapsed...The younger child only sustained light injuries."

Shamsudin said the victim's mother then called out to her neighbours for help to send both her children to the Tawar Health Clinic as well as to inform her husband, who was at the time working in Kulim.

"The victim was pronounced dead at the clinic and his body sent to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital (HSB) in Alor Setar for an autopsy. An investigation is being conducted in accordance with Section 31(1) of the Child Act 2001," he also said.

Under this section, investigation will be carried out on anyone responsible to the care of a child who may have been “abandoned, neglected or exposed the said child to danger so as to cause him/her physical or emotional injury.”