Police and emergency services were last night forced to call off a search for a six-year-old boy who, it is feared, might have drowned after apparently falling into a fast-flowing stream in Eldorado Park, southwest of Johannesburg.
Johannesberg emergency services spokesman Synock Matobako said the boy's friend reported the incident to police yesterday afternoon.
Police, who had not yet received a missing person's report, were trying to contact the boy's parents to establish if they were looking for him.
"The search party found a pair of school shoes. The way in which the cane next to the river was trampled indicates [that the drowning] may have taken place," said Matobako.
"Today was extremely hot, so the chances of the kids going into the water to cool down are very high."
Michelle Valentine, a ward councillor, was also at the scene.
She said three children were electrocuted last year while swimming in an area littered with live electric cables used for illegal connections.
Emergency services members were due to resume their search at first light today.
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