A boy of four has died after climbing into a tumble dryer during a game of hide-and-seek.
Sonny Gibson, from Ashbourne, Derbyshire, became trapped in the machine at his home yesterday (26th July) for an hour while his family and a police helicopter searched nearby fields, thinking he had strayed from the house.
It is thought that he pulled the door shut from the inside, but it is unclear whether the dryer was on when he was found.
It is understood that Sonny's mother Anne had gone shopping yesterday morning and had left his four half-siblings, aged between 15 and 20, to look after him. When she returned home to find her son missing, she called the police and an aerial search was carried out. Police made loud hailer appeals asking everyone in the town to look for a four-year-old boy.
Anne was too distraught to speak about what happened, but one neighbour told the Daily Mail that Sonny, who had finished nursery last week, was a 'sweet little lad' who loved playing hide and seek and 'was always trying to give his older brothers and sisters a surprise.'
Police confirmed that Sonny was found by his mother during the police search.