Five-year-old Jisan joined his mother early yesterday morning on a simple errand—to bring tea and breakfast from a nearby eatery in the capital's Rampura area.

Bursting with joy and excitement, he was frolicking behind his mother, holding his two-year-old sister Fatema Akter with one hand and carefully balancing a mug to bring back tea with the other, just a few hundred yards from their rented tin-roofed home in the Kunjaban area.

But little did they know about the tragedy that was about to strike them.

Photo: Collected

An old brick wall along the street, weakened by time, collapsed, crashing Jisan under the rubble.

Locals rushed to help, frantically lifting bricks to free Jisan. But it was too late.

Jisan was declared dead by doctors when he was rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said his uncle Nayan Sarder.

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"Fatema was playing with a rattle toy. Suddenly, it slipped from her hands and flew several yards away," he said.

"As Fatema reached for it, her mother, Jhumur Begum, stepped forward to help retrieve it. That's when the wall collapsed and fell on Jisan as he was near the wall," Nayan told The Daily Star.

"The old wall stood there in a crumbling state for a long time posing a risk to everyone who used the street. Vehicles ply on it and people use it frequently… It's a miracle that Jisan's sister and mother survived," he said.

Jisan's distraught mother Jhumur was still at a loss to describe how it all happened.

"My children were frolicking to the hotel to bring breakfast and tea. They love to accompany me on such errands. Suddenly, the wall collapsed, collapsing my world in seconds," she said as her husband Miraj Hossain tried to console her.

Md Faruk, in charge of DMCH Police Outpost, said the body was kept at the hospital morgue for an autopsy.

The family does not want to file a complaint and wants to take the body without an autopsy, Rampura police said.