Horror as blind boy falls to his death from 14th floor

Sharjah: A three-year old boy who was blind from birth died after falling from the balcony of his apartment on the 14-floor on Thursday morning.

Police said at that time of the accident the door to the balcony was left open and the mother was waiting on the ground floor with her two daughters for the school bus.

The boy identified as Mohammad Sulaiman Jadallah Al Mosleh, climbed on to a chair which was on the balcony, a police source said.

The accident happened at the 44-storey Al Yarmouk Tower high rise tower in Al Nahda area in Sharjah, police confirmed.

"It seems that the child had climbed on the chair and jumped from the balcony," a source from the police told Gulf News.

Police said they were interviewing the family, who are from Syria, about the incident at the Al Buhairah police station.

According to a watchman at Al Yarmouk Tower, the father of the toddler, identified as Sulaiman, works for a construction site in Abu Dhabi and comes to see his family in weekends.

"He was supposed to come by the evening [yesterday], but the police in Sharjah asked the father to come for questioning as the mother had been taken to Kuwaiti Hospital for shock," the watchman said.

Mohammad's mother had gone up to her home where she discovered that her son had fallen from the balcony.

A neighbour who saw the boy falling was also suffering from shock and said he would vacate the building yesterday.

"The family has been living in the tower for less than three months and have very little contact with the neighbours," he said.

A crowd of curious onlookers watched as the ambulance transported the toddler's body to hospital. He was then transferred to the Forensic Laboratory at Sharjah Police.

Safety regulations

A municipal official said while the Dubai Municipality ensures that all buildings adhere to rules regarding the height of windows and balcony hand rails, it emphasises that residents should not be negligent.

"We have international safety regulations in place and we make sure that these are adhered to right from the stage of design to granting approvals for final construction. However, safety is not only about rules. People should educate their kids and also themselves on their safety," said Marwan Abdullah Al Mohammad, Head of Engineeering Supervision Section, Dubai Municipality.

Regarding the norms, he said the window opening should be at least 90 centimetres above the floor level. He said the height of the balcony hand rail should be no less than 90 cms.

"The designer or developer can increase the height but we do not approve if it is less than 90 cm," Al Mohammad said.

Police later released the father and are expected to speak to the mother at a later stage.

After the accident, the mother was rushed to Kuwaiti Hospital for treatment of shock. She was discharged later in the afternoon but was still on tranquilers, according to sources at the hospital.

The police said the boy's body will not be released for burial until the investigation completed.

Friends of the family said the boy will be burried in Sharjah instead of his hometown in Daraa, Syria, which is witnessing protest activities against the government.

The fatal accident is the second involving a child falling out of a high-rise tower this week. On Saturday, a four-year-old Egyptian girl fell out of the window from the 15th floor in Al Qasmia area at 1.30am, while she was left unattended.

Parents may face jail if found guilty

The parents of the toddler could be held liable for their child's death if investigation reveals that it was their negligence that led to the death, according to Dr Ali Esmail Al Jarman, an expert in the legal implications of the matter.

"According to UAE penal law, this is a misdemeanor and the parents could be charged with negligently causing the accidental death of the child. Such an act is punishable by law. If found guilty, the parents could get up to maximum three years in jail or a fine between Dh1,000 and Dh20,000.

"However and due to the sensitivity and human aspects in such incidents, eventually a court hands out a suspended imprisonment or a reduced fine.

"In certain incidents the convicted parents could also be ordered to pay blood money ... However a judgment is mainly decided upon a judge's discretion," Dr Al Jarman said.

Similar incidents

• November 24, 2011 A young child falls to his death from the window of their 14th floor from Al Yarmouk Tower, near Sahar Centre, Sharjah
• November 19 A four-year-old girl dies after falling from the window of their 15th floor apartment building in Al Qasimi area, Sharjah
• September 27 A five-year-old boy and his mother die after separately falling from the balcony of their flat at the Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
• January 30 A 13-year-old Indian girl plunges to her death from an 11th floor apartment on Al Falah Street in Abu Dhabi.
• November 14, 2010 An African three-year-old toddler falls from a fifth-floor balcony in Sharjah. The boy was at home with his sick grandmother before falling to his death.
• June 27 A seven-year-old Arab girl dies after falling from a balcony in a residential apartment located on King Abdul Aziz Road, Sharjah.
• January 19 A three-year-old Emirati national identified by the police only as A.T. falls to his death from the 13th floor of a high-rise building in Khalidiya, Abu Dhabi.

By Agaddir Ali, Mariam M. Al Serkal, Shveta Pathak and Bassam Zaza, Gulf News staff