A 9-year old boy has gone missing after about 30 minutes of heavy downpour in Sawaba, a suburb of Kumasi last Saturday afternoon.

Mutala Abdalla was dragged away by running water into a big gutter in the neigbourbood of Sawaba-Ansuru Sunna.

It had been raining and Abdalla had been playing with his friends. In an effort to get home during the downpour, he slipped into an uncovered gutter.

The family, with the support of the youth in the area had since yesterday been searching for the body of Abdalla but to no avail.

His grieving uncle, Mohammed Fuseini said one other boy who also fell into the gutter survived.

 “The gutter is big and unknown to the children, one of the slabs covering the gutter to serve as a bridge was weak.

So crossing to the other side, two of them slipped into the fast-moving water but one managed to hold on tight to a metal in the gutter and came out

But my nephew, Abdallah was unlucky and washed away”. He said.

Residents say numerous calls on authorities to construct a bridge over that big gutter have fallen on deaf ears.

“As for this bridge, we have been complaining for a long. But the politicians continue to promise us, after we vote for them they forget about it,” a resident explained worriedly.

Residents are worried over the state of the gutter as the rainy season approaches.

Mohammed Fuseini has appealed for public support to assist in finding the body of the boy for the necessary burial rites.