Boy found dead in sewer system

Authorities recovered the body of an 11-year-old migrant boy Sunday morning who died after falling down a manhole at a construction site in Pudong New Area, local media reported.

The boy, Peng Jianhui, was playing at the construction site with two of his friends around 7 pm Saturday when he stepped on a wooden plank covering the manhole, Shanghai Television Station reported. The plank broke and the boy fell around 7 meters into a storm sewer. The other two children ran to tell Peng's family, who called the police.

Police frogmen descended into the sewer system four times that night, searching for three hours until 11 pm, but they found no trace of the boy, according to a report on the news portal eastday.com.

Peng's body was found around 6 am. After the fall, the strong current in the drainage system had carried Peng away from the site.

The boy's father, who was not identified, had seen uncovered manholes at the construction site when he passed by every day on his walk to work, he told Shanghai Television Station. Peng's family complained that the construction site employed few protective measures such as fences or signs to warn people about the danger.

The Shanghai Flood Control Headquarters, which regulates manholes in the city, does not oversee those still under construction, said Zhang Zhenyu, a senior director for the agency. "The construction company has not finished working on the manholes," Zhang told the Global Times. "We only supervise manholes after a project has been completed."

The construction company is building a new road at the site, so it's not supposed to be open to the public, Zhang said.

The city's sewer system authorities launched a citywide manhole inspection campaign last month to prevent people from accidentally falling into open manholes. They vowed to replace a manhole cover within two hours after it is reported missing. The authorities also planned to install nets under manhole covers as an additional safety measure.

It is not the first time an unsupervised migrant child has died this summer. On July 16, a truck ran over 3-year-old twin brothers from Anhui Province while they were sleeping outside on a straw mat near Jifeng Road. The older brother died.

The Global Times could not reach the Pudong New Area government for comment Sunday evening.