5-year-old boy with terminal cancer is drowned as his family forcibly submerges him in a river in bid to cure him (video)

A five-year-old boy diagnosed with terminal cancer drowned as his family tried to cure him with water from the River Ganges in India. 

Police say the child, who had leukemia, died after his parents submerged him in the river flowing through northern India in a superstitious bid to cure him.

According to Mail Online, his family travelled from their home in Delhi to Haridwar on Tuesday, January, 23, to perform the ceremony and pray for the boy.

The child was reportedly accompanied by his parents and a female relative identified as his aunt by local media.

It was gathered that doctors in the capital had given up on trying to save him, leading the family to take more desperate measures. 

While in the river, concerned bystanders reportedly told the family to stop as they continued to hold the boy under the water, considered sacred to Hindus. When they intervened, the ‘aunt’ tried to attack onlookers as they pulled the child out of the water.

The child was taken to hospital, where doctors formally announced he had died.