Manama: Police in Saudi Arabia are investigating the death of a six-year-old student who was found dead on a school bus.
Abdul Malak Al Awadh was sleeping when the bus reached his private school in Jeddah. All the students got off, but none of them attempted to wake him up or to talk to him. The driver took the bus to the parking lot and left it there until the end of the school day, Saudi daily Okaz reported.
Abdul Malak’s father and uncle said that the school was responsible for his tragic death.
“My nephew did not suffer from any ailment or health issue when he got on the bus with his classmates to go to school,” Yahya Al Awadh, the uncle, said. “When he hadn’t come home at the end of the school day, his father became worried and tried to contact the school, but no-one answered him. He later received a phone call from the school administration informing him that his son was sick. He went there with his wife and both had the shock of their lives when they heard that their only son was dead. They felt devastated,” Yahya told Okaz.
The uncle said the family was puzzled over the absence of a chaperone to accompany the young students on the bus to and from school.
The family was also shocked that the school had failed to contact them to ask about the reason their son did not attend classes on that fateful day, he added.
The head of the education district in Makkah Province, Abdullah Al Thaqafi, ordered an immediate investigation of the incident, spokesperson Abdul Majeed Al Ghamdi said. (Jeddah is the largest city in Makkah Province).
The bus inside which Abdul Malak died belonged to a private transport company sub-contracted by the school, he added.
The police launched their own probe into the tragedy.
“Investigators are questioning all parties following the medical report that determined the causes of death,” a security source said.
