HYDERABAD: A five-year-old boy died after falling into a stormwater drain in a locality near old vegetable market on Hali Road on Sunday evening.

The victim`s father Mohammad Afzal told reporters that Raheel, who was the youngest among his five children, had gone out to buy some goodies and went missing.

He and his relatives were searching him when some children playingin the area noticed his body in the drain, he said.

He said that they took out the body and shifted it to hospitalwhere doctors pronounced him dead.

The boy`s death saddened everyone in the locality.

Meanwhile, MQM`s Sindh Assembly member Rashid Khan arrived in the locality and held Hyderabad mayor and deputy commissioner responsible for the sad incident.

He said that Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and districtadministration should de-silt the drain and cover it with concrete slabs like the drain along Autobahn road to avoid such incidents in future.

According to the area`s residents, only two days back, three children had fallen into the drain but luckily they were rescued in time.

The drain does not have protective walls and it had not been desilted as well, which made it dangerous as it passes through several thickly-populated areas, according to locals.