Details are still sketchy but what is certain is that a seven-year-old boy has just spent “at least two days” in Coimbra living alongside a dead father and a collapsed grandmother.
Whether he ate anything or not, and how he managed on his own is unclear, but neighbours finally worked out all was not right when they saw the child going in and out of the house in Ceira, without seeing either of the adults he was meant to be with accompanying him.
The little boy was finally ‘rescued’ by GNR police on Wednesday, while his 87-year-old grandmother was taken to hospital and his father’s body removed for autopsy.
According to news reports, the child has received psychological support and is currently being looked after at a children’s home in Lisbon.
It appears he had travelled from Lisbon to spend last weekend with his father, 52 and grandmother.
The father is understood to have “felt ill” on Monday morning, sending the child to call his grandmother.
The elderly lady was “nervous and impatient” and ended up falling as she climbed the stairs to see what was wrong. Once on the floor, she was apparently incapable of getting up and was in and out of consciousness until police arrived.
The father, meantime, died. No mention has yet been made of the child’s mother.
