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Two children fall to their deaths in Chongqing
By Li Xin (China Daily Chongqing Bureau)
Updated: 2009-08-27 09:27

Two young girls were dead after falling from buildings in Chongqing in separate incidents on August 22. It was reported that one of the girls was left unattended.

Xiao Rui, a four-year-old girl from Yunyang county, was in Chongqing along with her father visiting her aunt. At around 8 pm on August 22, the family decided to go shopping after dinner and left the girl alone at home as she was asleep. After arriving home at approximately 10 pm, they couldn't get back into the house as the door had been locked from the inside. They sought assistance from a locksmith, who managed to open the door ten minutes later. Upon entering the apartment, they noticed Xiao Rui was missing. Ms He, Xiao Rui's aunt, saw a small stool on the balcony near the railing. The family rushed downstairs from the 19th floor where they found the young girl lying in a garden not breathing.

An ambulance arrived and doctors administered CPR to the young girl, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators believe when Xiao Rui awoke and found nobody home, she attempted to open the front door but managed to lock it instead and tried to get out via the balcony, tragically falling to her death.

On the same day, another four year-old girl named Xiao Tong (not her real name) fell from the 9th floor of a building in Chongqing's Shiqiao Pu. According to an investigation into the incident, Xiao Tong was home with her grandmother and cousin when she got into a fight with her cousin and locked herself inside a room. The girl fell from a window and landed on a platform on the third floor. She died shortly after emergency personnel arrived.

Experts are warning parents in light of these incidents that because children are active, easily irritated and their ability of self-control is relatively poor, parents should be more cautious if they have to leave infants alone at home. But it is best to never leave children unattended, experts say.