SINGAPORE - A five-year-old boy fell to his death from the window of his eighth-storey Tampines home on Friday evening.

The child, who would have turned six next month, is thought to have lost his footing while standing on a chair next to the window. He was likely trying to see whether his mother was returning home.

His father had gone overseas for work and his mother had gone to a nearby shop, leaving him alone at home although she rarely did this, said neighbours quoted in the reports in Chinese dailies Lianhe Wanbao and Shin Min. They added that the boy was an only son, and the family had moved to Singapore from India about three years ago.