A Metropolitan Police Department sign is seen in this file photo. (Mainichi/Kenji Yoneda)

       TOKYO -- A 9-year-old boy who had gone missing in the Tama River in suburban Tokyo on Aug. 22 was found on the riverbed downstream the following day, and was later confirmed dead.

       The elementary school third-grader was found in the Tokyo town of Okutama at around 10:20 a.m. on Aug. 23 by a Tokyo Fire Department rescuer who was looking for him. According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's Ome Police Station and other sources, the boy was confirmed dead at hospital. He had apparently been carried about 2.5 kilometers downstream from where he had been playing.

       According to the police station, the boy was swept away at just after noon on Aug. 22 while a group of six -- including him, his mother and her friends -- were playing at the river. Noticing him being carried away, his mother reportedly ran along the river and tried to rescue him, but she was too late.

       (Japanese original by Takuya Suzuki and Maki Kihara, Tokyo City News Department)

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