Girl, 9, dies after fall from Abu Dhabi residential tower

The Syrian girl fell from the eighth floor of a residential building on Hamdan Street and was rushed to Sheikh Khalifa Medical City.

Powered by automated translation

ABU DHABI // A nine-year-old girl has died after falling from the eighth floor of a building on Hamdan Street.

Police said the Syrian girl fell from a flat belonging to her parents.

She was taken by ambulance to Sheikh Khalifa Medical City and died later.

Child-safety authorities at the Ministry of Interior repeated their calls for parents to take more care with children in residential towers.

Maj Gen Nasser Al Nuaimi, chairman of the ministry’s Higher Committee for Child Protection, said parents must ensure safety requirements are met in their homes to prevent such tragedies.

Gen Al Nuaimi urged families not to let children sit in dangerous areas of flats and to know where they were at all times.

“The Ministry of Interior is endeavouring to address this issue by enhancing awareness regarding the protection of children from the risks of windows and balconies,” he said.

Lt Col Faisal Al Shammari, director of the ministry’s Child Protection Centre, said it had developed a set of guidelines for children’s safety around the home.

“For children, the spaces between the balcony railings are large compared to their size and could threaten their life,” Lt Col Al Shammari said. “They can easily slip between them and fall.

"These guidelines focused on the importance of the surveillance of children when they approach windows and urged parents to close all windows, and to make sure that they close them tightly.

“The centre also encouraged them to instal metal bars on windows.”

In Abu Dhabi, the Department of Municipal Affairs requires all buildings have windows that do not open more than 10 centimetres.

The rules were introduced in 2012 after several children were killed or injured by falls from windows or balconies.

The building code completed last year also includes rules on window and balcony safety.

In Dubai, the municipality passed regulations that require the minimum height of railings to be 90cm.

newsdesk@thenational.ae