Child strangled by blind cord

A TODDLER has died after becoming entangled in a blind cord.

Police are investigating the death of the three-yearold in Mayobridge near Newry, County Down on Saturday evening.

A police spokesman said there were no suspicious circumstances.

Expressing sympathy to the boy’s family, Sinn Fein MLA Caitriona Ruane said: “This tragic accident has been felt by the entire community and I would like to extend my condolences to the family. Our thoughts are with them at this time.”

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said at least 25 deaths in the UK since 1999 have been blamed on blind cords.

The death of two-year-old Muireann McLaughlin, who di e d at her home in Menstrie, Clackmannanshire, after she slipped and fell while waving goodbye to her grandmother in February 2008, prompted Sheriff David Mackie to call for looped blind cords to be banned.

Her death also led Government-funded agency Make It Safe to raise awareness of blind-cord strangulation

The daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Britain died last October in a similar incident. Alexandra Lucy Hoegh, two, was found suspended and unconscious by her mother Dana at their west London home.

Her father is Morten Hoegh, a shipping tycoon from Norway.