A 5-year-old boy slipped and fell to death from the ninth-floor window of a hotel in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, days after being evacuated from Afghanistan. 

Mohammed Munib Majeedi’s father worked at the British embassy in Kabul. The family arrived in Britain last week and were among the Afghan refugees who were housed at the OYO Sheffield Metropolitan hotel. Around 2.30pm on Wednesday, the boy plunged about 70 feet to his death.

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Jawed Jamal Akhtar, an Afghan interpreter who was staying at the same hotel with his family, told the Mirror that he rushed the boy to the hospital “but you could see Mohammed was dead.” He said the boy’s mother had also come to the hospital. 

“The last time I saw the mother she was not good. After the boy fell his mother was shouting, ‘Save my son, please! Just the day before, Mohammed was playing with my children at the front of the hotel — they were playing cops and robbers,” Akhtar recalled. 

Offering condolences, a Home Office spokesperson told the Guardian, “We are extremely saddened by the tragic death of a child at a hotel in Sheffield. The police are providing support to the family while the investigation continues and we cannot comment further at this time.”

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Liaison officers were assisting the grieving family.

“We would ask that their privacy is respected at this time. Officers are appealing for anyone with information relating to the incident to come forward,” the spokesperson said. 

The Taliban forces took over Afghanistan and breached capital Kabul on Sunday. Their sudden victory, which comes as the US withdraws from the country following a 20-year-war, has sparked chaos at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, from where America and allied nations are trying to safely evacuate thousands of citizens and allies. The airport has come to symbolise the desperation of thousands of Afghans who are trying to flee the worn-torn country.