Mom’s horror when the son falls 1.50 meters into the drain shaft while walking after a defective shaft gives way

Video, captured from a neighbour’s house, shows the chilling moment when toddler Theo disappeared from view with his mother Amy Blyth, dramatically rescuing him from sewage in Ashford, Kent

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Ashford: CCTV captures the moment a toddler falls down the drain

CCTV footage captured the horrifying moment a mother was forced to rescue her toddler after she fell 1.5m down a drain.

Video, captured from a neighbor’s house, shows the spooky moment when toddler Theo disappeared from view.

His Amy Blyth had to pull him out of the sewers in dramatic fashion on Sunday in Ashford, Kent.

Mum Amy was taking little Theo for a walk on Sunday morning when the toddler disappeared through the drain cover as it tipped over and then closed over him.

The 23-year-old tore off the metal cover and jumped down the shaft to lift the boy out of the deep hole.

Covered in sewage, Theo called for his mother after the nightmarish accident that happened near their home around 9am.

Describing the ‘horror movie’ moment, she said, “My first thought was, ‘Oh my god, he’s dead.’

“I ripped off the drain cover and just saw him down there screaming my name. The sewage was up to his knees.

“I jumped into the drain, but it’s not big enough for me to bend down to grab it. I had to somehow bend my body to grab and pull him up.

“I don’t know how I did it. My body went in a direction I’ve never bent before just to get it out of that drain.”

Amy stood on ledges on the side of the sewer – which appears to be at least 5 feet deep – to reach for her son, who had fallen to the bottom.

Ms Blyth added: “It was so deep you couldn’t see my head from the ground and I wasn’t even on the ground.

“Just as I was pulling him up I think someone flushed a chain because we were soaked – with, I think, possibly, pee. Our clothes are absolutely disgusting.”

Amy emerged from the drain “screaming for help” while Theo was in apparent shock and “didn’t really make a sound.”

The terrified mum took the little boy, who is said to have swallowed some sewage, to William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, where doctors diagnosed him with a mild concussion but X-rays showed he miraculously escaped without a broken bone.

Personal trainer Ms Blyth said: “It could have ended so much worse. If he had gone down head first, I don’t even know if he would be here.

“I get sick just thinking about it. It’s an absolute nightmare – I’m petrified of drains now. I still feel very shocked by it. I just can’t really get over it.

“He literally went straight to the bottom and I thought I was going to lose him. It was actually like something out of a horror movie.”

She added: “We just walked up to him to go to his father’s house. I saw that the drain was a little loose, but I didn’t know at what level it was loose.

“He ran to the drain, stood on it and just fell all the way through. And then the drain cover closed over him.”

Amy, who lives in nearby Tenterden, Kent, said she dreads what could have happened if a child had fallen through the sewer cover unnoticed.

She added: “If he had been alone or if it had been another kid alone we would not have found him.

“We wouldn’t have known where they went. You couldn’t even hear him because it’s soundproof.

“He could have fallen and I would have run around the block to find him, not in a drain.”

Theo is home now and fine, but Ms Blyth complained to Southern Water, saying she needs “answers” as she believes the drain cover has been faulty for some time.

She added: “My little boy shouldn’t have fallen through a drain. This is not acceptable. We need answers as to why it hasn’t been fixed.”

Southern Water is understood to be working to determine who is responsible for the drain and manhole.

Around four investigators were spotted in the area yesterday (Mon) to investigate the cause of the accident.

The utility confirmed that it is investigating and taking the matter “very seriously”.

A spokesman for the company said: “We are aware of a situation involving a child and an open manhole.

“This is clearly a worrying situation for those involved and our team is on the ground.

“A dedicated account manager has been assigned to support the family.

“We take this matter very seriously and our first priority has been to make the area safe. The next steps are to understand exactly what happened.”

Southern Water has been contacted for an update on its investigation.