3 Year Old Dies in Hampshire Pond

Rodney Lawrence was found by officers in the pond at his parents' home in Kingsclere, on Sunday evening. Officers were initially called to an address in Union Lane at 5.54pm to reports of a missing child. It appears there was a children's party at the house.

Paramedics and a doctor rushed to the scene to treat the youngster, who was airlifted to the North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke, where he was later pronounced dead.

A Hampshire police spokesman said: "A post-mortem examination will take place tomorrow. At this stage the death is not being treated as suspicious and officers are investigating on behalf of the coroner. Once complete the case will be passed to the coroner.''

Rodney's parents, landscape gardener Jonathan Lawrence and mother Marie, were too upset to talk.