On February 17, Huria Ali was at home at Crest Buildings, Islington, with her four children when she realised her youngest, Malika, was missing.

After checking every room in her flat, she ran through her front door, frantically asking anyone she met if they had seen a little girl.

Police soon arrived, called by Malika’s father while on shift as a taxi driver, after Huria rang him and told him she could not find their five-year-old.

As Huria spoke to police officers on one side of her Peabody housing association block, her neighbours were looking along the canal.

As soon as Marion Brown heard a little girl was missing, her attention turned to City Road Basin, an offshoot of Regent’s Canal that lies next to her estate.

She ran towards the water’s edge and was looking over a metal barrier next to the canal, when something pink caught her eye.

Eyewitnesses heard Marion scream, before falling to her knees. Malika was face down in the canal, her pink pyjamas soaked through by the water.

The canal edge where Malika was foundThe canal edge where Malika was found (Image: Supplied)

Malika was rushed to St Thomas’ Hospital but pronounced dead a few hours later, when efforts to resuscitate her proved futile.

Standing in the witness stand at St Pancras Coroner’s Court yesterday (July 17), Huria Ali tearfully spoke of her anxiety whenever her children were near the canal.

“I was always scared of it, and I knew something would happen,” she said.

She told Coroner Mary Hassell, who was charged with investigating the circumstances around Malika’s death, that her daughter was “fun, sweet, and kind.”

But, she added, talking through a Somalian interpreter, Malika did not speak on account of her autism.

This, she explained, made her more vulnerable to doing dangerous things than other children.

Huria said: “She played by the canal when I was with her, but not alone. She had not tried to get into the canal before.

“She was with me at home and within a minute she went out, and I did not see her. I do not know how she did it.”

It is thought that Malika was somehow able to open the latch to her family’s front door, something her mum said she had never done before.

CCTV footage from the estate’s courtyard shows that the five-year-old immediately headed towards the canal after leaving the flat at around 3.30pm.

Morine Crosbourne, a neighbour whose bedroom window looks directly onto the canal, recalled seeing Malika next to the water’s edge.

She said: “I noticed a girl running left and right. She was on her own at all times.

“She had her head through the gap in the railings for about five minutes, both of her feet were on the bottom railing. She appeared happy.

“I was really concerned at this point. There were no parents and there were no children in the vicinity. I lost sight of her as she walked to the right.”

Footage from a different CCTV camera at Islington Boat Club, across the canal from Crest Buildings, captured Malika clambering onto the canal railings.

A splash showed the moment, at around 3.57pm, when she toppled into the canal.

She was not found for another 25 minutes, when neighbours and PC Hassaan Zia dragged her from the water.

PC Zia called London Ambulance Service and began performing CPR.

The first paramedic, Kenny Bell, arrived on the scene within four minutes, and immediately began to try to clear Malika’s airways, which were blocked by canal water.

Mr Bell said: “I could see my patient was white and not breathing. Malika had no pulse and I recall that her temperature was low.

“London’s Air Ambulance arrived, and she was transferred to St Thomas’ Hospital.”

Doctors at the hospital tried to revive her for more than 90 minutes, eventually recording her death just after 7pm that evening.

Her father, Mohammed Hibu, was able to formally identify her shortly afterwards.

St Pancras Coroner Mary Hassell said that Malika’s medical cause of death was “drowning, with a contributory factor of autistic spectrum disorder”.

In her determination, she said that the railing Malika was playing on next to the canal “afforded no real protection against the water” for a small child.

She added: “The housing association did not risk assess the barrier, did not act on complaints by residents, and, after finally noticing the barrier was unsafe, did not make any appreciable attempt to make the area safer.”

Peabody has since built a temporary fence next to the canal by Crest Buildings, and has said a permanent solution will be put in place by March next year, subject to planning approval.

A spokesperson for the housing association said: “This was a heartbreaking and tragic accident, and our thoughts remain with Malika’s family and friends as they grieve their terrible loss.

"We’ll continue to support local residents and will consider all the points raised in the coroner’s report.”