Mother, kid swallowed up by pavement

Russian rescuers found the body on Monday of a 18-month toddler who was swept away in the sewage system with his mother when the pavement buckled under them in the central city of Bryansk.

The emergency service said the mother was walking her child in a stroller through the city's main square on Sunday when the pavement suddenly gave way because of a ruptured hot water pipe.

The baby fell out of his stroller and vanished while the woman's policeman husband managed to pull her out of the four-square-metre (45-square-foot) hole using a rope.

State television said the smooth pavement on the square had recently been replaced with paving stones that some Russian cities are starting to use to give the streets a more European feel.

Underground pipes carrying hot water occasionally burst in Russia because of extreme temperature swings that cause cracks in the system and release scalding steam that buckles the pavement above.

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