Cape Town – Residents of Delft were greeted by this gruesome scene where a toddler apparently burnt to death in a rubbish heap.
It’s believed the two-year-old boy was busy stoking a fire with two other young children when he fell into the flames.
Little Lulo Patekile fell into a hole where rubbish was being burnt after an adult who started the fire apparently left it unattended.
The child’s tiny body was found on a small field on the corner of Leiden Avenue and Sandriver Crescent on Tuesday afternoon.
The toddler could be seen lying face down in the hole surrounded by rubbish and a burnt mattress.
Lulo’s aunt, Nomfundiso Mswana, 41, spoke to the Daily Voice as his traumatised mother, Asanda, was rushed to hospital after she collapsed at the scene.
Two-year-old boy Lulo Patekile burnt to death after stoking a fire with other young children and then fell into the flames. Picture: Daily Voice
Nomfundiso says Lulo was playing outside with three other children when tragedy struck.
“He was playing outside with his friends when one of the boys came running, calling Asanda and saying the child is in the hole, burning."
“We don’t know who made that fire."
“It is very difficult for us at this time,” the emotional aunt says.
A community member told the Daily Voice an unknown man had started the fire in the hole, after digging out building sand.
The unidentified culprit then left the fire unattended and Lulo and his friends fuelled the already ravaging fire with wood and papers and that’s how Lulo fell into the hole and died,” said the neighbour.
Police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Traut, confirmed the incident.
“We can confirm that a two-year-old boy died in a fire on an open field earlier today in Delft. The circumstances are being investigated and a death inquest case docket has been registered,” Traut said.