EIGHT-YEAR-OLD Kasszel Harlequin of 2409 Central Amelia’s Ward, Linden perished yesterday in the Katapuli Creek in Bucktown, Linden during an Emancipation Day outing with his mother, Alice Harlequin, and other relatives.

Reports are that the child was playing with other children in the shallow part of the creek, but somehow ended up in the area of deep waters. A family member got him out of the water and he was rushed to the Wismar Hospital in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice), but was pronounced dead on arrival there.

A senior police official confirmed that the child died by drowning.

The child’s mother was so traumatised by the turn of events that she could hardly speak, but a family member told the Chronicle that: “When I heard he drowned, I started to feel weak. His mother did faint; she, too, could not have believed. We thought that the children would have stayed at the shallow part of the creek, but apparently the wave must have pushed him to the deeper part,” the family member said.