POLICE in Berbice are investigating the circumstances surrounding the drowning of a two-year-old boy in a trench at the side of his Number 52 Village, East Berbice Corentyne home on Monday.

The incident occurred at approximately 16:00hrs. The toddler has been identified as Bryston Akrie. According to the child’s mother, Patricia Davie, she had left the child playing with his older siblings while she was preparing a meal in the kitchen.

Davie told the Guyana Chronicle after a while she did not hear or see any of the four children and began calling out to them. She explained that she later saw her older children farther up the street by her neighbours playing, but did not see the baby.

She and her mother immediately began a frantic search for the child when they noticed his lifeless body lying face down in the trench just beside the house. “When me see am, meh jump in and pick him up,” the mother of four said. She said held on to her son and began screaming at which point a relative took the child from her and indicated he was no longer breathing.

The police were called to the scene and assisted in transporting the child to the Skeldon Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Relatives believe the child ventured out the yard after his siblings left and fell into the trench.