Five-year-old boy dies after falling from third-floor window in Genoa

Fatal fall in Begato

Emergency services responded on Wednesday around 12:30 to an apartment block in Begato, a hillside residential district located in the Val Polcevera area of Genoa. A five-year-old boy fell from a third-floor window of the multi-storey residential building. Initial emergency dispatches incorrectly described the child as an eight-year-old, though responding rescue personnel later revised the age to five. Firefighters, municipal police officers, and an emergency medical vehicle dispatched by the regional 118 service quickly secured the perimeter. Despite rapid medical intervention on the pavement below the apartment, the boy died minutes after the fall due to the severity of the impact.

Immediate rescue efforts

An eighty-year-old neighbourhood resident, Carlo Busso, known locally by the name Romano, became the first person to reach the child after seeing the fall. Busso immediately contacted the emergency dispatch centre and attempted basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the street before professional teams arrived. Paramedics from the Croce Rosa ambulance service and an accompanying medical response team took over the life-saving measures, preparing for emergency transport to Villa Scassi Hospital in Sampierdarena. Resuscitation efforts proved unsuccessful, and medics declared the child deceased at the scene. Busso, who had known the family and planned to give the young boy a bicycle, recounted his reaction to reporters outside the residence.

I did not succeed. To reach 80 years of age and witness something like this without being able to do anything, it is...

Investigation and family circumstances

The Genoa police flying squad, known as the Squadra Mobile, took charge of the official investigation into the fatal incident. Detectives began interviewing building residents, neighbours, and eyewitnesses to reconstruct the precise movements inside the flat prior to the fall. Investigators are examining whether the child was unsupervised in the residence and whether he leaned over a windowsill or balcony railing before losing his balance. The family, of Nigerian origin, had resided in the Begato apartment block for at least four years. The mother collapsed after rushing to the scene and received hospital treatment for severe shock, while the father had been away at his workplace in Nervi in eastern Genoa.

Recent incidents across Liguria

The fatal fall in Genoa represents the third severe incident involving young children falling from heights in Liguria during 2026. In February 2026, a nine-year-old primary school pupil sustained injuries after falling approximately four metres from an interior terrace at the Papa Giovanni XXIII elementary school in Savona when part of a protective railing collapsed. In July 2026, emergency services responded to another accident in the province of Savona after a three-year-old child fell from a residential balcony in Pietra Ligure. Police investigators in Genoa are now collecting physical measurements and witness testimonies from the Begato flat to complete their formal report for judicial authorities.