A three-year-old girl died after falling into an open drain in the Halishahar area of Chattogram city on Wednesday afternoon.
The deceased was identified as Humaira Akhter, daughter of Abdur Rahman, a lineman working for a local cable connection company.
The family lived in a colony adjacent to Anandipur Mosque in Halishahar.
The incident took place around 3:00pm in the Anandipur area.
The child鈥檚 body was recovered around 3:45pm, said Chattogram Fire Service assistant director Md Anowar Hossain.
Anowar Hossain said that the slab covering the drain had been removed beforehand, and due to the accumulated rainwater, the drain was not visible.
The child accidentally stepped into it and was swept away by the current.
He added that locals tried to rescue the girl upon witnessing the incident but were unsuccessful.
Firefighters were called in and eventually recovered the child鈥檚 body, which was immediately handed over to her family. They rushed her to a private hospital, but doctors declared her dead on arrival.
Locals reported that heavy rainfall had intensified the water flow in the drain.
The child had been playing when her ball fell into the drain.
While trying to retrieve it, she slipped and was carried away by the current.
Firefighters launched a search and retrieved her body, not far from the spot where she went missing.
She was taken to Agrabad Maa o Shishu Hospital.
On April 18 this year, during a downpour, a battery-run auto-rickshaw fell into a drain near the Hijra Canal in the city鈥檚 Chawkbazar area.
A six-month-old girl named Seherish, who was in her mother鈥檚 arms, was swept away and found dead nearly 14 hours later, about five kilometres away in the Chaktai canal.
At least 15 people have died after falling into canals and drains in Chattogram over the past six years, two in 2020, five in 2021, three in 2023, three in 2024, and two in 2025 till now.
Among them were seven children, three women, including university and college students and five men.
