A seven-year-old child had a lucky escape when he was sucked down a storm drain – only to emerge from another one 300 metres away.
Raphael Levi dos Santos Rocha fell into the open hole as it rained on Monday (18 December).
He went through seconds of terror as the flowing water carried him down the pipeline.
Luckily, 300 metres (328 yards) away, he tumbled out of another opening in the ground in Cruz Alta, Brazil.
Seven-year-old Raphael told local media: “There was a lot of water, not much space, and then I couldn’t move much.”
According to reports, a friend had seen him fall down the hole and had immediately run over to Raphael’s dad to raise the alarm.
But by the time Paulo Renato Rocha da Silva, 44, had reached the spot, his son was already emerging from another storm drain down the road.
He said that, when he arrived, he got there was “no way” he would get his son back.
According to Paulo, Raphael had a lucky escape because at the exit he emerged from, there is a junction in the pipeline.
Had he been swept the other way, the next available exit would have been much further away.
Paulo told local media: “He literally crossed the entire pipeline until he got down there.
“We never thought we would find him again.
“I was amazed, I had never seen anything like it.”
Raphael picked up cuts and bruises to his face and was taken by his dad to a local hospital, where he received 25 stitches.
He has since been discharged.
The local authorities have since covered the open storm drain.
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