Boy aged 3 swept to his death from sea wall

A THREE-year-old boy has died after being washed into the sea by a wave.

The child was sitting on the sea wall on the Kirkcaldy Esplanade in Fife when the wave struck, sweeping him out 20 metres into the bay at around 3.25pm yesterday.

Two lifeboats arrived within 12 minutes and they desperately scoured the water.

An RNLI Kinghorn vessel retrieved him and attempted resuscitation as they raced to the shore, before handing him over to paramedics. He was rushed to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy but died at around 5pm.

Police said the boy’s Polish family were with him at the time of the incident and were by his bedside when he died.

A spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the lifeboat crew recovered the boy from the water in a “strong swell”.

She added: “The lifeboat crew gave emergency medical attention and transferred the child in a serious condition to a waiting ambulance in Kirkcaldy Harbour. Sadly, the three-year-old boy was later pronounced deceased at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.”

Forth Coastguard added that the accident happened around high tide and it appeared waves had been crashing over the sea wall.

Superintendent Dougie Milton, from Fife Constabulary, said: “We are keen to establish the full facts of how this tragedy occurred. I would ask anybody who was in the area at the time and saw the boy and his family or knows anything of this incident to contact Fife Police.”