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Clifford Lo

An 18-month-old boy and an Indonesian domestic helper fell to their deaths yesterday from the 19th-floor flat where they lived.
Siu Wang-hon and the maid, 32, were at home in Ko Hang House, Ko Cheung Court, in Yau Tong, when the boy's 64-year-old grandmother left them to go shopping at about 1pm.
Initial checks showed the two fell out of the kitchen window, said Chief Inspector Chung Chi-ming, of the Kwun Tong district crime squad.
Chung said the window grille had been removed and the window was wide open when officers entered the flat.
There was a clothes-drying rack attached to the outside of the building, underneath the window.
Chung said police were investigating all possibilities as to the cause of death.
A senior police officer said the fall was likely to have been an accident.
"The grandmother told police that there was laundry on the clothes-drying rack when she left home at 1pm," he said.
"When she returned to the flat, the clothes were lying inside the flat.
"We believe the maid was carrying the toddler as she collected the clothes from the rack, and she lost her balance and fell with the boy."
Police were called in when the maid was seen lying on the ground floor outside the building at 2.20pm. She was declared dead on arrival at United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong.
Police discovered which flat she had fallen from and located the grandmother, who told officers the maid had been taking care of the boy in the flat.
Wang-hon was missing when the woman led police into the flat. After a brief search, officers found him lying dead on the first-floor canopy of the building at about 3.15pm.

	We believe the maid was carrying the toddler as she collected the clothes from the rack, and she lost her balance and fell with the boy
The toddler was understood to have lived with his parents, grandparents and three-year-old sister.
Chung said the domestic helper had been employed by the family since July last year. "An initial investigation showed she enjoyed a good relationship with the family," he said.
In February 2011, a 25-year-old Indonesian domestic helper fell to her death while cleaning a window in an apartment on the 22nd floor. The woman plunged from the Grenville Heights flat, in Belair Gardens on Tai Chung Kiu Road, Sha Tin, and landed on a podium. She was declared dead in hospital.
 


Helper and toddler die after fall from 19th floor of Yau Tong block

News

Hong Kong

Initial checks showed the 18-month-old boy and an Indonesian domestic helper fell out of the kitchen window, said Chief Inspector Chung Chi-ming, of the Kwun Tong district crime squad.
