Paramedics pronounced the boy dead as he was being rushed to Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital here.

Ipoh police chief ACP Mohd Ali Tamby said the boy, who was at home with his stepmother, in her 30s, had been playing with a curtain rope at the doorway of the staircase leading to the kitchen.

“The boy had asked for some biscuits and then went to the living room where he again played with another curtain rope.

“The stepmother, a housewife, felt uneasy as no sounds were coming from the boy and on checking, found him with his neck ensnared in the curtain rope,” he said in a statement here.

Mohd Ali said she immediately called her husband who was in Bangi on work matters, and her sister who lived nearby.

“She also called 999 and was asked to do CPR while waiting for paramedics. While doing CPR, she got a pulse and milk came out of his mouth.

“CPR was done until the paramedics arrived and they continued with it in the ambulance but the boy did not make it.”

He said the boy’s father, aged 33, was a lecturer at a public higher education institution here while the boy’s elder sister, aged five, was at pre-school at the time.

The incident took place at about 2.30pm.

The post-mortem concluded the boy had died due to compression of the neck consistent with hanging.