An eight-year-old boy, identified as Chinwe, has been killed when a surging flood flushed him into deep erosion behind the School of Nursing, Nkpor in the Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State.
According to PUNCH, the victim, who is a son of a vulcaniser in the area, was said to be returning from a journey with his mother during a rainfall when the incident happened late on Wednesday.
The boy, while approaching the gully from where he and his mother wanted to pass through to their home, ran faster than his mother, prompting her to shout for help.
His mother’s shouts and calls for him to turn back fell on deaf ears, as he continued running until he reached the narrow part of the gully.
It was gathered that in an attempt to jump over the gully, the surging flood swept his feet off and he plunged into it.
A combination of surging floods from the Immaculate Hearts Sisters Convent and Our Ladies Industrial Centre in Nkpor during rainfall swept the boy into the gully.
Some youths in the area were said to have prevented his mother with a baby strapped to her back in her attempt to jump into the gully to search for her son. The youth were said to have jumped into the gully in search of the victim but could not see him.
PUNCH reported that an eyewitnesses said that it was only the next morning that his corpse with one hand broken was found in the other side of the gully about a kilometre away from the spot where he plunged.
The bereaved mother, who could barely talk about the incident, hired a vehicle which conveyed the corpse from Nkpor to their hometown.
The state police spokesman, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, said the report had yet to be brought to his attention as of the time of filing the report.