Damascus - A Syrian boy was killed when he fell into a manhole that had been covered only with cardboard, the Damascus daily al-Watan reported Wednesday.

Rescue workers combed the city's sewer system for hours before locating Ayash's body 15 kilometres away, near a sewage-treatment plant.

Mohammed Ayash and his mother had just visited the boy's grandparents when the two stopped to run some errands on the way home, the paper reported.

When his mother turned her back on the child for a moment to pick up her shopping bags, Ayash had disappeared. Unknown to the mother, he had fallen into a manhole and drowned in the sewage pipe.

Ayash's mother phoned his father and other family members, who frantically searched the neighbourhood before the boy's father found a nearby manhole partially covered with cardboard, feared the worst, and called emergency services, the paper said.

Thieves often steal the metal manhole covers to sell them for scrap at a rate of 15 Syrian pounds (0.33 US dollars) per kilogram, al-Watan said.(dpa)