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Published : 19 Apr 2025, 01:18 AM
A 7-month-old baby has drowned after a rickshaw carrying the child and his family toppled into an open roadside drain amid rain in Chattogram.
The incident occurred near the Kapasgola Bridge in Chawkbazar around 8pm on Friday, where the rickshaw veered off the narrow lane adjacent to a culvert and fell into the waterlogged drain.
Mehdi Hasan Tuhin, a station officer at the Agrabad Fire Service, said the baby was in his mother’s arms at the time of the accident but was swept away by the strong current after she lost her grip.
The baby’s mother and grandmother were rescued from the water shortly afterward, but emergency responders were unable to immediately locate the child, Tuhin said.
“Rescue efforts are underway,” he added.
Fatalities linked to open and overflowing drains are not uncommon in Chattogram during the rainy season.
In June 2024, the body of an 8-year-old child was found in a canal near West Gosaildanga. Locals said the child may have fallen in while playing near an uncovered section of a box drain built under the CDA’s waterlogging project.
A similar tragedy unfolded in 2023, when a 2-year-old child drowned in a rain-swollen drain near his home.
Persistent downpours had overwhelmed the city’s drainage system, turning many roads and alleys into dangerous waterways.
On Jun 30, 2021, a rickshaw driver and passenger died after their vehicle fell into a drain in the Chashma Hill area of Sholashahar.
Later, on Aug 25, 2021, another man named Saleh Ahmed drowned in the Muradpur neighbourhood after slipping from a footpath into a canal.
That same year, in September, university student Sadia, 19, identified by a single name, drowned in the Nasirchhara Canal near Agrabad after falling in during a storm.
Her body was recovered after a five-hour search involving the removal of several tonnes of debris.
Then in December 2021, an 11-year-old child drowned after falling into the Chashma Canal while trying to “pick up his toys”.
There have been instances of deaths caused by drowning in canals and drains in Chattogram in previous years as well.
