After 17 hours of searching, the body of an 18-month-old toddler was found this morning in a roadside drain in Chattogram's Agrabad.
His family said he may have fallen into the open drain which was invisible due to waterlogging on the road.
Around 9:10am, Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) conservancy workers found Yasin Arafat's body while cleaning the small roadside drain just 10 feet from the victim's home in Rongipara, Agrabad, said Abdur Razzak, deputy assistant director of Chattogram's Fire Service and Civil Defence.
Rescuers from the fire service and CCC began searching at a large open drain in the area as soon as Yasin went missing at 4:30pm yesterday, reports our local correspondent.
The search was paused at 11:00pm last night and resumed early morning today, said Razzak.
CCC conservancy workers found the body while cleaning a small drain.
Yasin may have fallen through an open slab of the small drain while playing, he opined.
The issue of falling into open drains and unprotected canals has been prevalent in the port city since at least 2017.
On July 3, 2017, retired government officer Shilbrata Barua fell into an open drain while on his way to attend a wedding in Bakalia.
On June 9, 2018, a child named Al Amin fell into the drain in Amin Jute Mill area.
On June 30, 2021, three people went missing after an auto-rickshaw fell into a canal in Chashma Hill area of Sholashahar. Two bodies were later recovered.
On August 25, 2021, a 50-year-old vegetable trader slipped and drowned in a canal in Muradpur intersection. His body has not yet been found.
A month later, Sheherin Mahmud Sadia, 19, died after falling into a drain in the city's Agrabad intersection.
On December 7 that year, a 10-year-old boy's body was recovered three days after he fell in the same canal in Sholashahar Railway Station area.
On April 15 last year, fire service divers rescued a woman from the Osmania canal in Kalurghat area.
