An eight-year-old boy drowned after paddling in a canal with friends before being sucked into a concrete drainage pipe.

The youngster was with three pals splashing around in the muddy water in Surin province, Thailand on March 7, when he was dragged towards the narrow sewer.

Theerasak, the victim, was pulled into the 12-inch wide pipe, that was around 100 metres long. He became stuck two-metres into the opening.

Tragically, his friends continued swimming without noticing that Theerasak was missing.

The body was only found after Thawatchai Pan-ngam, 46, a farmer who normally used water from the pipe, noticed that the water ran too slow.

He suspected a blockage and put a stick inside before noticing something was stuck. He cracked the pipe open and found a deceased boy.

Thawatchai called the emergency services who sent police and a rescue team to retrieve the boy. They drained the water and Theerasak was pronounced dead at the scene.

Thawatchai said: ‘I saw a pair of shoes at the pipe’s entrance and asked the other kids whose shoes. They realised that their friend was missing. I prayed that it was not a boy inside as kids came to play here many times but no incident happened before.’

Uthai Buntem, 47, Theerasak’s father explained while crying that he was a single father and had no time for his boy because he had to work in Bangkok.

The boy was raised by his grandmother.

He said: ‘I have asked the local council organisation to place grilles on the pipe so that this kind of incident would not happen. I hope that my son will be the one who is lost because of their negligence. It must not happen again.’