A BURNLEY councillor has called for a safety review at a park after a four-year-old boy drowned in a nearby canal trying to retrieve his football.

Hamaad Shahid, of Spencer Street, was pulled from the Leeds-Liverpool canal on Sunday evening by a passer-by after he disappeared from his mother's sight at the Stoneyholme park.

Attempts to revive him at the scene and at Burnley General Hospital, where he was taken by ambulance, failed and he was pronounced dead on Sunday night.

The park, near the Progress Works, in Elm Street, is separated from the canal by a wall with gaps left in it to allow access to the tow path.

But Coun Mozaquir Ali, who represents the Daneshouse with Stoneyholme ward, believes gates should be installed into these gaps.

He said: "There is clearly a safety issue here. I don't know whether we could have prevented this terrible tragedy, but we urgently need to look at the possibility of putting up gates to make it more difficult to access the tow path.

"I will be calling for Burnley Council to conduct a risk assessment of the site and for safety measures to be put in place to try and prevent anything like this happening again."

Coun Ali said that over the last few years money has been invested in improving the park and children's play area next to the canal and both are now popular with families in the Daneshouse and Stoneyholme area.

He said: "On a good day, like it was on Sunday, the park is full of children and their families. It is really well used. This makes it even more important to look into the issue of gates."

Mick Cartledge, the council's director of community services, said: "Burnley Council is looking to gather further information about the recent incident to determine if any action from the council is required.

"Our thoughts are with the family at this time."

An inquest into Hamaad's death was due to be opened today.