Melbourne:
In a horrific incident, an eight-year-old boy has died after being boiled alive in a geothermal hotpool in New Zealand, local media reports said.
The boy, who suffered severe scalding to his body when he fell into the hotpool at Kuirau Park in Rotorua, a popular tourist destination on North Island, while on a family outing on December 26, died from burns at the Middlemore Hospital in Auckland yesterday, a hospital spokesman was quoted as saying.
Witnesses claimed to have seen the boy screaming in agony as the skin on his hands peeled off, after he fell into the 100C pool. He was airlifted by helicopter to the intensive care unit at the Middlemore Hospital.
The hospital spokesman said the boy's family was with him when he died. He said that the victim's family had a Pacific Island background and did not speak English.
Rotorua District Council parks and recreation manager Garry Page said that an inspection had found no problems with the pool's fences and authorities were appealing for witnesses to establish how the accident occurred.
"Our hot pools are well fenced off and people just can't stumble into them. Apparently this boy had actually climbed up on to the fence and jumped into the pool," he was quoted as saying.