KARACHI: A four-year-old boy drowned in an open manhole in Hasan Brohi Goth within the remit of the Surjani Town police station, police said on Saturday.

Area SHO Ghulam Husain Pirzada said that in the absence of a proper sewerage system in the slum area the family of the victim boy had dug a manhole outside their home. It had become choked, however, and they called a sanitation worker to clean it, he said.

He said that the worker removed the slit and went to dispose it somewhere and in the meantime, the child, Asadullah, fell in the manhole and drowned.

The body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital but the family took it away without allowing doctors to fulfil medico-legal formalities.

He said the family told the police that they did not want any legal proceedings.