A five-year-old boy fell to his death from his 19th-floor bedroom window after he was refused permission to watch the latest Spider-Man movie, according to reports.
Naming him only as Valentino, police in Indonesia said the boy locked himself in his room at an apartment complex in the capital Jakarta after an argument with his mother.
Officers said they were investigating the possibility the tragic youngster may have mimicked his screen hero or, despite his tender age, taken his own life.
However, the fall could also have been no more than a tragic accident.
According to Indonesian media the boy was in the bath on Thursday when he asked his mother, a 23-year-old woman named as Eva, if he could see the latest superhero film.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was released in Indonesia on Wednesday and has been a smash hit, scoring the country’s highest opening day box office figures of all time.
But the boy’s mother said he could not go because his one-year-old brother Vincencius was ill and she wanted to visit the toddler at her mother’s house, kompas.com reported.
‘This made Valentino very upset,’ senior police commander Suyudi told the website. ‘He wanted to see the movie.
‘After his request was declined, Valentino then rushed to his room and locked it from the inside.’
The police chief continued: ‘She went down to the second floor to ask for help from a caretaker, but while talking to him she heard a commotion outside.’
The child’s body was found on the fibreglass roof of the food court in the apartment complex, according to reports.
The noise heard by his mother was people rushing to try and help him after he fell.
He was taken to the nearby Pluit Hospital in north Jakarta, but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Floral tributes were left on the damaged roof of the food court.
Initially police said they were investigating the possibility that the boy had taken his own life. The window in the apartment was easily accessible from his bed.
However, police have also said he was a ‘hyperactive’ child who enjoyed imitating his screen heroes.
‘He liked to imitate films like Iron Man and Captain America after every watch,’ the head of the criminal investigation unit told Kompas on Friday.
The fall could also have simply been an accident, investigators said.
The tragic case recalls the death of six-year-old Kevin Morais, who was climbing along the window ledge in his bedroom on the third floor of his home in London when he lost his grip and fell.
His mother, nurse Maria Morais, heard the fall and found her ‘naughty little boy’ lying in a pool of blood. She called an ambulance but the child was unresponsive.
He was said to have believed he was ‘invincible’ like his hero, Spider-Man.
Source: Daily Mail, UK