‘Live’ toddler taken to morgue in body bag

A toddler pulled from the wreckage of a car crash that killed five family members was sent to a morgue in a body bag in the belief he was dead.

He survived thanks to his grandfather holding him tightly in his arms

Mohammed Eisa Danial Hayat was the sole survivor of the devastating crash during a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on 8th February.

The unconscious toddler underwent a second ordeal when he was zipped into a body bag and transported to a morgue, it was revealed yesterday.

But as he was being put into storage his body began moving and stunned officials rushed him by ambulance to hospital.

The potentially catastrophic mistake was revealed for the first time yesterday as grieving relatives spoke of the accident. They have also launched a campaign lobbying for better regulation of taxis in Saudi Arabia after the tragic events of last February.

Eisa and his family were travelling in a taxi when it hit a bridge and flipped over, killing the driver and the whole of his family. The driver, understood to have been going too fast at the time, was uninsured and is believed to have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Eisa suffered a dislocated shoulder, broken arm and ribs in the crash but survived thanks to his grandfather holding him tightly in his arms.

His mother Bilques, 30, who was pregnant and due to give birth in eight weeks, died in the accident.

Also killed were his father Mohammed, 33, grandfather Shaukat, 56, grandmother Abida, 47, and his aunt Saira, 29.

The crash happened as the family, from Newport, south Wales, were in the country for Umrah, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

Officials on the scene in Saudi Arabia were certain nobody had survived and Eisa was taken to the morgue with his family and the driver.

The toddler, who has since turned two, is now back in Wales and being looked after by members of his parents’ extended family.

“They thought ‘oh, the little baby was dead, no-one could’ve survived that.’ So they took him, zipped him up in the bag and took him to the morgue,” Shaukat’s brother, Shazada Hayat, told Wales On Sunday.

“He ended up in the mortuary. As they were putting him in [to storage], he moved around. They grabbed him, put him in an ambulance and rushed him to the Medina Children’s Care Hospital.”

He went on to speak of his family’s efforts to get the law changed in Saudi Arabia to ensure only licensed and insured taxi drivers can operate.