A one-year-old boy drowned in a stream opposite his house at Mannanchery in Alappuzha on Friday night, around 8.45 pm. The deceased has been identified as Icein, son of Syra and Anas Mether.

According to the Mannanchery police, the child fell into the stream about 20 metres from the house. "There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. The post-mortem examination has confirmed the cause of death as drowning," an officer told Onmanorama.

A former ward member from Ambalakkadavu said that Anas and his brother, Muhammed Haris, live in the same compound. Haris is very close to Anas's children, aged 12, 6, and 1. Every day after returning from the office, he plays with them. On Friday, after he came home from work, he asked Syra where the toddler was. She said the child had gone to Anas's house, but when he checked, the boy was nowhere to be found. He was later found floating in the stream," he said.

The child's father, Anas Mether, who works in the Gulf, is expected to arrive at 8 pm on Saturday, after which the funeral will be held, relatives said.