Baby swept into sewage system dies

RUSSIAN rescuers scoured the sewer system in the central city of Bryansk yesterday in search for the body of an 18-month baby who tumbled through the ground with his mother when the pavement collapsed.

The emergency service said 26-year-old Tatyana Didorenko was walking her child, Kirill, in a stroller through the city’s main square when the pavement buckled because of a ruptured hotwater pipe.

The baby fell out of his stroller and vanished while the woman’s policeman husband managed to pull her out of the four-square-metre hole using a rope.

“The woman managed to grab on to the edge of the collapsed pavement, which saved her life,” a Bryansk official was quoted as saying.

The RIA Novosti news agency said nearly 70 rescuers had scoured several kilometres of the central sewer system in search for the baby until the boy was found dead hours later.

Underground pipes carrying hot water occasionally burst in Russia because of extreme temperature swings that cause cracks in the system.