Toddlers drown in buckets

A Soweto woman has been arrested for child neglect after leaving her four-month-old baby alone at home while she went out drinking. Photo: Steve Lawrence

A Soweto woman has been arrested for child neglect after leaving her four-month-old baby alone at home while she went out drinking. Photo: Steve Lawrence

Published Jun 28, 2012

Share

Two toddlers have drowned in buckets in separate incidents in the North West, police said on Thursday.

Captain Amanda Funani said police and paramedics were called to a house in the Tswelelang informal settlement in Wolmaransstad on Wednesday when an 11-month-old baby drowned in a bucket used as a chamber pot.

The child's mother was washing clothes when she realised she could no longer see her son. She went inside to investigate and found the child head-down in the bucket. The toddler was declared dead on the scene.

Also on Wednesday, in Brakkuil village near Zeerust, a two-year-old drowned when its mother left it playing near two buckets of water that had been used for washing laundry. When she returned, she found her child dead in one of the buckets. - Sapa

Related Topics: