Cape Town - A 10-year-old boy has been rescued after spending eight hours in the crushing mechanism of a rubbish lorry in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, international media reported on Wednesday.
According to Tuesday's report by BBC News Africa, the boy, identified by police as Majed Mubarak Ibrahim, was working with a truck run by the Khartoum State Cleaning Corporation.
It is believed he was pulled into the lorry as he threw in some rubbish.
A statement by the police in Sudan said that the child came out alive and was transferred to a nearby hospital, without further explanations about his health condition, local media reported.
Activists circulated horrific pictures of the child, who was inside the machine, with only his small hand visible from behind the iron blocks, as reported by Sudanese news website Altaghyeer.
Majed’s tragedy lasted for eight hours, from Monday night until Tuesday morning.
Social commentators say the accident sheds light on the issue of child labour in Sudan, where children are often exploited and some recruited as soldiers, according to BBC News Africa.
Tough economic realities in Sudan have led some children to work in dangerous jobs.
In related news, the body of a five-year-old Moroccan boy, who was trapped in a well, was recovered earlier this month in the North African country.
According to media reports, rescue workers on February 5 extracted the body of the boy who had been trapped in an underground well in northern Morocco.
IOL