Russian city livid after toddler lost in urban sinkhole

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Published time: January 09, 2012 01:57
Edited time: January 09, 2012 17:59

Mother and her child fall in hole in Bryansk. (RIA Novosti/Nikolay Pahomov)

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Accident, Children, Russia

A normal weekend stroll with her one-and-a-half year-old son turned tragic for a young mother in the western Russian city of Bryansk, when the ground opened up under her feet.

Tatyana Didenko, 26, and her only son Kirill fell into a sinkhole on a busy street in Bryansk Sunday. The woman was saved by her husband Vladimir Didenko, a traffic police officer – someone called him shortly following the accident, and he was not far from the scene, Komsomolskaya Pravda reports. “He pulled his wife out, she caught the edge of the ditch and held on,” witnesses told the newspaper. “But he couldn’t manage to save the child,” they added.

Tatyana was taken to hospital in a state of shock, but the boy – who slipped out of his stroller and fell four meters into the ground – was not immediately found. Divers and emergency ministry rescue workers searched for the toddler for 28 hours, but had little hope of finding the boy alive. His body was recovered more than a day later, in a sewage collector some distance away from the accident site.

Emergencies Ministry officials say a drainpipe must have burst, pushing so much water through the ground that it created the massive hole.

Bryansk residents are livid over authorities' carelessness and negligence, which they blame for the tragedy. “What are our community services busy with, if such a hole could have appeared in the city center?” they demanded to know. The scour was quickly boarded up, and a criminal manslaughter and professional neglect case has been initiated. Russian Children’s Rights Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov demanded that the Bryansk Prosecutor's Office and other authorities inspect the city's roads and services, and the region's governor promised compensation to the Didenkos.

Comments (12)

New World Order 10.01.2012 04:05

Rod the U.S mother of the suing culture. But enough harm has been done to this heroic people of Russia and the people are doing harming the Russian people have long term and highly calculated project including authorities failure to halt the transfer Russians children overseas( many who then get murdered); the poison Russian children; putting Russian children in unsafe pleasure boats. I would like to see that this conspiracy be exposed and those responsible brought to justice. Russians are being poisoned mentally with rubbish new culture coming from the West( cheap Hollywood films), fast food; cheap entertainment culture. The Russians are under assault in all ways possible. Russia is the only country the world can count on in defense of collective human security and there are those who may wish to literally remove the Russians or at least reduce them as much as possible. I would to see some body held responsible for this horrific accident. It was no accident that during the Nazi occupation of European Russia the fascist troops targeted women and children: children and women are the foundation of any society and today Russian women are represented in the Western media as cheap nannies, sex workers, gold diggers and mail order brides. Now we see both the Russian children and Russian women are under attack. I do not think these are harmless coincidences.

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Rod (unregistered) 10.01.2012 03:27

In America the same thing could happen. No one would be blamed, no prosecution in anyway. I respect the Chinese and the Russians when it comes to taking action legally on high profile citizen injury cases.

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New World Order 10.01.2012 03:09

Wake Up Russia I think there is conspiracy to damage the Russian people morally and physically. Just look what is happening to the society- promotion of fast food as modernization, roads that are not safe- Hollywood films to ‘re-educate the Russians’ and all- easy way few oligarchs were able to loot- and still continue to loot this heroic people- makes me feel there is conspiracy to harm Russia. I truly believe it and members of the Russians elite are involved in this conspiracy.

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