Four-Year-Old Rescued from Vienna's Danube Canal: Brother in Crisis Center

The seven-year-old brother of the boy was removed from the family after a risk assessment and taken to a crisis center. The four-year-old will also be taken there once he is discharged from the hospital, said spokeswoman Ingrid Pöschmann to APA on Saturday.

The family has been supported by MA 11 for two years. The Child and Youth Welfare Service assisted them with parenting advice and outpatient care due to an illness of one parent. "The cooperation was good," emphasized Pöschmann. After the incident, a risk assessment was initiated, and it was decided to remove the seven-year-old from the family. Additionally, a release prohibition was issued for the four-year-old, said the spokeswoman. This means that when the child is discharged from the hospital, he will not return to the parents but will go to the crisis center with his brother.

The boy has now been transferred to the normal ward. He is responsive and communicating, said Pöschmann.

Four-Year-Old Rescued from Vienna Danube Canal: Construction Worker as Lifesaver

How long the child was in the water is unclear. At noon on Thursday, passersby discovered the child motionless in the water near the Augarten Bridge. A courageous construction worker, who was on a boat nearby, rescued the boy from the cold water and immediately began resuscitation. "He is a lifesaver," Pöschmann praised the man. The team from the Vienna professional rescue service took over the child and brought him to the hospital, where he recovered remarkably quickly. When the four-year-old was found, he was already severely hypothermic, unconscious, and had stopped breathing.

Due to the child's lack of German language skills, the police's search for the parents proved difficult. He could only say his name. The couple reported the boy missing at a police station in Vienna-Brigittenau only around 9:00 PM. According to the 40-year-old father's statement, the two and the four-year-old took the seven-year-old to school. After that, the couple went separate ways. The mother was then alone with the younger child. The 42-year-old woman called her husband in the afternoon to say that she could no longer find the four-year-old.

Subsequently, the parents started the search, which took place at the New Danube, the Islamic Center, and also at the Peace Bridge. When they could not find the child, they went to the police. There, they claimed the son had only been missing for two hours. When the officers said the son had already been found at noon, the parents reportedly said they had been searching for their child and were agitated.

The 42-year-old mother was reported because the four-year-old was in her care at the time of the incident. The father is considered a witness. The woman's interrogation is still pending.

According to APA information, the father is Austrian but originally from Saudi Arabia. The woman's nationality is unclear, but she was born in Syria.

(APA/Red)

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