Paralowie drowning: Adelaide children on Easter egg hunt before toddler drowned in creek and died
40 minutes of parents’ panic after their toddler went on an Easter egg hunt with his older brother – only to tragically drown in a creek
- Toddler, one, taken from the creek in Adelaide
- He died tragically in hospital on Monday
- He and his older brother had walked down the street
A one-year-old boy and his older brother roamed the streets in search of Easter eggs for up to 40 minutes before the toddler was found unconscious in a nearby creek.
CCTV footage showed the two children appearing to hunt for Easter eggs as they wandered their street in Paralowie, northern Adelaide, on Sunday morning.
Tragically, the year-old was pulled from the Little Para River around 9 a.m. and, despite the frantic efforts of paramedics, died Monday afternoon at Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
It is understood that the children had wandered from their home to the creek some 300 yards away before their frantic parents called triple-zero about 40 minutes later. 7News reported.
The children wandered their street in Paralowie, north Adelaide, on Sunday morning, as CCTV footage appeared to show the couple foraging for eggs.
Their parents had desperately searched the area for their children and in their panic they crashed their black Hyundai IX35 into a ditch.
The vehicle was found to be stuck in the ditch at an angle, with the rear tire in the air.
The creek the little boy was taken from is often dry, but a wet week in Adelaide, which brought over 11mm of rain, had flooded it.
Neighbor Trista Koleff witnessed the devastating scene after the boy was found.
“I came out and I saw (an) ambulance resuscitating the child,” Ms. Koleff told the program.
The boy was pulled unconscious from the creek and, despite the best efforts of paramedics, later died in hospital
“When I saw the mother crying like that, I had to go inside. It was traumatic for me, it really scared me.’
Another neighbor Ryan Nuske told Adelaide advertiser he saw the ‘father walking down the street in a panic’.
“When I got there, he (the boy) had just pulled out of the water,” he said.
Salisbury City Mayor Gillian Aldridge has resisted calls to fence off the creek, saying people should be careful when children are near water.
A single red rose was left where the car drove into the ditch in honor of the child.
Police said a report will be prepared for the coroner.
The family’s car ended up in a ditch near where the boy was found on Sunday morning