Young Child Found Dead Inside Running Washing Machine

A young child has tragically been found dead inside a running washing machine in New Zealand.

Authorities confirmed the tragic news happened in Christchurch late Friday last week, with a police spokesperson saying the pre-school age child was discovered in a front-loading machine.

"One person was injured and taken to hospital where they later died," the spokesperson said. "Police are making enquiries into the circumstances of the death and the coroner has been informed."

The community is rallying around the family, with Waihoro/Spreydon-Cashmere Community Board chairwoman Karolyn Potter saying this type of tragedy has rocked their area.

"This is a sadness that's beyond talking about," she said.

Stuff reports police aren't treating the child's death as suspicious.

This type of tragic death has happened before in the world and similarly devastated an Orlando community in 2019.

A toddler managed to get inside his family's front-loading washing machine in August and the boy sadly died.

Cory Burkarth of the Orlando Police Department said at the time: "At some point in that process, the door closed. Either he pulled it shut himself, maybe the sibling closed it.

"That's something we're still looking at. And so, what we're also looking at right now is, when that door closed, did it create an airtight seal and therefore deprive the child of oxygen?"

Topics: News

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie