Girl, five, falls to death in Sharjah

Dubai: A five-year-old girl tragically died after she fell off the balcony from a residential building in Sharjah.

This is the second incident in less than two weeks of a toddler falling from a balcony.

Gulf News previously reported that on October 19, a 4-year-old African girl died after falling from the third floor of residential building in Al Taawun area in Sharjah.

Officials at Sharjah Police said the incident happened on Saturday evening in Al Mamzar, although details of the apartment floor had not been revealed.

“The mother was preoccupied in the kitchen and did not notice her daughter sneaking off to the balcony, which was locked,” said a police officer, according to the Arabic daily Emarat Al Youm.

The operations room at Sharjah Police dispatched police patrols, forensic teams and an ambulance unit to the scene of the accident, and found that the toddler had died instantly.  

The girl’s body was then transferred to Sharjah Police’s forensic laboratory to determine the circumstances leading up to her death.

Since 2013, more than two dozen deaths of children falling from high-rise buildings were reported in Sharjah.

To stop the accidents, Sharjah revised its building codes in late 2015 and made it mandatory for dangerous openings at floor levels to be blocked.

Buildings owners were also instructed to have at least 120-cm-high balcony railings, 20 cm higher than previously called for by the municipality.

Since 2013 to date, a rough count of child deaths due to falls from residential towers in Sharjah stands at 27.

2013 - 4 deaths

2014 - 7 deaths

2015 - 7 deaths

2017 - 3 deaths (to date)

Source: Gulf News