5-year-old rescued after falling into stormwater drain

A manhole. File photo / Kenny Rodger

A Christchurch woman whose five-year-old daughter fell into a stormwater drain in a public park says she can only imagine the outcome had she not been there.

The girl was traumatised after she fell feet-first into the unsecured manhole in Christchurch's Victoria Square on Saturday, The Press newspaper reported.

The incident comes just over a year after two-year-old girl Aisling Symes died in a stormwater drain in West Auckland. Her body was not found until a week after her disappearance.

Christchurch mother Michelle, who did not want to give her full name, said she was walking a couple of steps ahead of her daughter when she heard a noise.

She turned to see her daughter falling into the drain, after which the heavy stormwater lid flipped shut and trapped her daughter inside.

Her father Pierre struggled to open the drain to rescue his daughter. Although trapped for less than a minute, the girl was "soaked right to her neck".

Michelle said she was lucky to have heard her daughter falling into the drain.

"I can only imagine what the repercussions of this incident could have been, especially after rain, had I not seen her fall in," she said.

She said Christchurch City Council needed to make stormwater drain safety a high priority.

"How many other stormwater drains are there in public places that have may have been damaged by the earthquake that are similarly damaged?"

Council city environment general manager Jane Parfitt said the drain has since been secured, and the council has made it a priority to identify and secure other similar sites.

Questions about stormwater drain safety were also raised after Aisling Syme's death.

A neighbour said at the time that the drain cover could be blown off by water during heavy rain, and although council staff had looked at the drain prior to the incident, it had never been fixed.

Waitakere City Council, now part of the Auckland supercity, said it had received four complaints in five years about the drain.

- NZPA