ALOR SETAR: A three-year-old girl was found drowned after she was believed to have slipped into a drain near her house in Felda Gunong Bongsu and swept by the current to Sungai Dingin near Kulim, last night.

Kulim police chief Supt Azhar Hashim said the incident occurred at about 7 pm during heavy rain while Naera Dellisha Muhammad Nazri was playing with a few other children at the scene.

"The victim's eight-year-old brother, Muhammad Thaqif, then ran home to inform their father, who went to search for the girl with other family members," he said in a statement here today.

Azhar said the girl was believed to have been swept by the current after falling into the drain and the body was found about an hour later in Sungai Dingin, some three kilometres from where she was reported to have slipped.

The body was then sent to Kulim Hospital for post-mortem.

Meanwhile, Kedah Fire and Rescue Department assistant director Mohamadul Ehsan Mohd Zain said they were alerted of the incident at 7.24 pm and arrived at the scene at 7.57 pm.

He said the body was found by passers-by and it was handed over to the police.

-- BERNAMA