A 4-year-old boy drowned in relatives’ backyard pool during a Fourth of July party last night in Queens, authorities said.
Firefighters arrived at the Beverly Road home in the Douglas Manor neighborhood just before 6 p.m. to find the unconscious child, identified by police as Christos Voulkoudis, lying next to the pool after he was pulled out by family members.
He was rushed to North Shore Hospital in Manhasset, LI, where he was pronounced dead.
Neighbor Mary Higgins, 13, said crying family members came pouring out of the house into the driveway as the boy was being taken away.
“I saw them pulling him onto a stretcher and then they left in the ambulance,’’ she said. “He wasn’t moving.”
Higgins saw a woman running from the house screaming, “How could I let this happen!”
Another grief-stricken woman sobbed as she told reporters that Christos was “an adorable little baby.”
The boy’s grandfather said Christos’ family lives nearby, in Bayside.
The sweet-faced boy was seen smiling in pictures taken on a 2009 family trip to Greece and posted on the Facebook page of his father, Nick.
Police described the death as a tragic accident.