Two Brothers Die in Fridge While Playing Hide and Seek

Published: 6/14/2019, 11:12:31 AM EDT

Two brothers, four and six years of age, suffocated to death after they locked themselves up in an old refrigerator near their home in Kyrgyzstan.

The two children were playing hide and seek in an old discarded refrigerator in the courtyard near their house in the village of Mikhaylovka, Kyrgyzstan, Daily Mail reported.

Police think it was 6-year-old David who climbed in first and that he was later found by his younger brother Nikita, who also climbed in.

The door closed, but the refrigerator was an old Soviet-style model with a latch on it that could not be opened from the inside once it's closed.

They then became trapped.

After some time, the parents, 28-year-old Roman and his 27-year-old wife Yulia, became worried because they hadn't heard their children's voices for a while and began searching for them. They combed the house and the entire village in a desperate attempt to find them.

After several hours of fruitless searching, the parents turned to the police and reported their children missing.

Police arrived at the spot and started searching the house and then the compound, where they found the children in the fridge where they had been locked up for approximately five hours.

Despite the parent's attempts to perform CPR on them, their lives were lost.

The police do not suspect foul play, but the incident remains under investigation.

3 Children Die Inside Freezer in Florida

Three children, a 1-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a 6-year-old, were playing in their yard outside their Florida home and became stuck inside an unplugged chest freezer and died on Jan. 13, authorities said.

According to Inside Edition.com, the adults had yet to bring in the freezer that was stored in the yard outside their Live Oak home, when the children apparently climbed in, the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office said.

The mother of the 4-year-old watched the children play outside but had gone in to use the bathroom. When she returned, the children were gone, she said.

She alarmed another woman that was lying asleep at the time, and together they searched the property, including an empty house where the children used to play.

The women were friends and lived together with the children. After searching for 30 or 40 minutes, they opened the freezer and made a horrible discovery: all three children were inside but unresponsive.

They tried to resuscitate the children and called emergency responders who rushed them to the hospital, but to no avail.

“It is believed at this time that when the children entered the freezer, and the lid closed, the hasp fell shut, trapping the children inside,” the sheriff’s office said.

Sheriff Sam St. John said: "This is just a tragic, tragic, tragic accident. You know, kids will be kids, and they just went out there and played. Being kids, they don't know the danger of different things that are out there in this world like adults do," St. John said. "You know, when you just sit there and think about it, you know, what these children went through, what the family's going through and what they'll continue to go through. It just helps to have other people out there, helping you out, giving you words of encouragement. It means a lot."

No foul play is suspected, but the investigation is ongoing. St. John said they will meet with the state attorney's office and authorities will be investigating the case further. By that time more information, as well as the names of the three children, will be released.

Data released by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reviewed by WCTV-TV, shows that between 2012 and 2017, 17 people in the United States died after becoming trapped in household appliances.

The CPSC recommends (pdf) individuals identify appliances or ice chests in their homes, garages, or vehicles, that could present an entrapment hazard and:

Childproof old-style refrigerators and other appliances which are to be discarded or are in storage. The surest method is to take off the door completely and in most cases this is a simple process using a screwdriver. It is unlawful in many local jurisdictions to discard old refrigerators without first removing the door. Keep children away from old-style refrigerators, freezers, dryers or coolers still in use.
Lock the door to your utility room and warn children not to play inside these appliances.

To report unsafe products or a product-related injury, visit www.saferproducts.gov or call CPSC’s toll-free Hotline at 800-638-2772.