Canadian boy, sucked into water pump, loses feet

July 11, 2006

A seven-year-old boy's feet were severed after he was sucked into a water pump at a swimming pool. He is in intensive care as police investigate the water-park accident.

He was seriously injured yesterday when his feet became stuck in a pump that circulates water in one of the pools at Le Camping des Glissades d'eau St-Pie, in Sainte-Pie, Québec, 55 km (35 miles) east of Montréal.

Doctors amputated the boy's legs below the knee. The boy will be given prosthetic feet.

"He should be able to walk by the end of the summer and to be back to school," said, doctors. "He will have to learn to walk again."

Park spokesman Denis Arcand said, "the pump did not have a protective grill over it at the time of the accident".

The park is now closed and will stay closed while police are investigating.