A five-year-old boy drowned after jumping into a canal to try and save his younger brother.

Three-year-old Saifusdeen Saha was playing by the canal when he plunged into the water Pattani, southern Thailand on June 5.

His older brother, Nurafadia Bula, saw that he was struggling and jumped in to help. However, they were both pulled away by the force of the water in the irrigation canal.

Their shocked friends saw the boys both disappear below the surface and rushed back to tell his parents.

When the adults arrived at the scene, it was too late as the locals found the younger boy already drowned.

The police and the rescue team had spent over five hours before they found the older boy washed away from the spot where he had jumped. He was stuck in a pipe that was clogged by pieces of wood.

Rescue worker Thongchat Buakiao, 30, said the boys might not have known about the canal depth.

He said: "This irrigation canal here is quite deep and it is dangerous for little boy like them to go in and I think they were not aware of it.

"Moreover, the current was so strong and that might be problematic to them like we had encountered while finding the older boy."