Boy, 2, dies of heatstroke in central China mountains while looking for his grandmother

A two-year-old “left-behind” child has died from heatstroke in the mountains of Hubei province, apparently while looking for his grandmother on Monday, a mainland newspaper reports.

The unattended boy was found missing when his grandmother returned to their home in Meichuan town in the city of Wuxue after working in the fields, having told the boy an hour before to stay at home and watch television, the ChuTian Metropolis Daily reported. The grandmother called the police after she could not find the boy in the house or on the surrounding farmland.

The boy was found dead in a cotton field in a hilly area 700 metres from his home that evening, after the police and local residents searched the town, including dangerous places like a fishpond.

An autopsy conducted by the Public Security Bureau of the Criminal Investigation Brigade ruled out murder as the cause of death, and concluded the boy died of multiple organ failure caused by heat exhaustion.