Boy, 4, killed by falling cupboard in home in south

A 4-year-old boy died Monday morning after a cupboard fell on him in Merkaz Shapira, a village in the south-central region of the country.

Medics from the Magen David Adom emergency service tried to resuscitate the boy while taking him to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon with critical head injuries.

When medics got to him he had no pulse and was not breathing, MDA said.

Doctors later pronounced him dead.

“Unfortunately, despite attempts at resuscitation at his home and continued advanced resuscitation at the hospital, we had to declare his death,” the hospital said in a statement.

Police opened an investigation into the incident.

According to the Beterem child safety group, over the past decade 305 children were taken to the hospital with injuries caused by falling cupboards. In 2007, a boy was killed in such an accident.

Beterem CEO Orly Silbinger said in a statement to the Kan public broadcaster that such incidents are “not so unusual, even if it doesn’t always end in death.”

She called on parents to ensure that any furniture that is more than 75 centimeters high be bolted to a wall.