Boy, six, critical after falling in ice pond
A six-year-old boy remains in a critical condition in hospital today after plunging through ice into a pond.
The boy is thought to have been underwater for half an hour before he was pulled out by firefighters after a friend he was playing with raised the alarm.
A woman was already in the six foot-deep pond, in the garden of a house in Crookham Common, near Thatcham, Berkshire, searching for him when emergency services arrived.
He was blue and unresponsive when he was found yesterday afternoon before being airlifted to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. Doctors there are still trying to save his life.
It is hoped the boy's young age, and the fact that the water was bitterly cold, could help him make a recovery.
Thames Valley Police have launched an investigation into how the boy came to fall into the pond, in Burys Banks Road, near Newbury Racecourse.
It is not known if the boy was attempting to walk on the ice, or accidentally fell on to it, but paramedic Hugh Whitaker urged others to stay away from water.
He warned: "With the very thick frost we have been having, it's impossible to know whether ice on water is thick or thin.
"If you go onto it, you risk falling through. Parents and children need to be vigilant. All icy water is dangerous and should be treated as such."
He would not confirm if the woman in the pond with the boy was related to him, but added that she had been medically examined after coming out of the water and did not need to be treated.
