Girl chokes to death in swing fall

A nine-year-old London girl choked to death when she accidentally got caught up in the rope of a garden swing.

Chanelle Clarke was playing at her grandmother's home in Romford when, it is believed, she slipped from the home-made swing.

It appears that as she fell the swing got caught around her neck and she was left hanging from the tree, unable to reach the ground with her feet.

Her younger sister, Dawn, saw she was in difficulty and ran to alert their grandmother.

An ambulance crew was on the scene within five minutes but Chanelle died a few hours later at Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, only six days before her 10th birthday.

Shirley Hancock, Chanelle's headmistress at Crowlands Junior School in Romford, said today: "The news is heartbreaking. She was a lovely girl - popular, lively and extremely helpful. Our thoughts go out to her family."

The accident happened in Crow Lane, Romford, on the afternoon of 6 March.

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents warned that deaths such as Chanelle's are not uncommon.

He said: "Sadly, we hear of tragedies of this kind taking place every year, where children can get strangled or choked in a variety of ways."