News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

This is the heart-breaking moment a dad mourns beside the coffin of his 12-year-old son who was thrown off a bridge by gangland thugs for refusing to kill a stranger.

Angel Ariel Escalante Perez had been walking home from school when he was ambushed by the thugs.

They gave him a gun, and told him he had to shoot a bus driver or be killed himself.

Because his father Luis Escalante was a bus driver, the tearful schoolboy refused and said he would rather they killed him.

They then gave him the choice of death by being chopped up by machetes, or thrown off a bridge.

(Image: CEN)

He chose the latter, and as a result they threw him off the Incienso Bridge, located in Guatemala City, which is one of the longest bridges in Central America.

Despite plunging 135m (443 feet) he survived after landing in the thick foliage below.

But the same foliage also covered him meaning he lay there, critically injured for 72 hours, as his father and family frantically searched for him.

Eventually the father with family and friends found the child, who was taken by emergency services hospital where medics fought for 15 days to save his life before he finally died from his injuries.

They said that if been found earlier, there was still a chance he might have lived but after 72 hours alone and in agony there was little that could be done.

(Image: CEN)

Javier Soto, spokesman for the Guatemala firemen said: "The father of the child said his son had been gone for 72 hours and told him that six alleged kidnappers threw him off because he refused to kill a bus driver.

"The child was asked how he would prefer to die - whether it would be through stabbing or by being thrown off a bridge - and he chose the latter"

"The fall was from 135 meters.

"Usually people who jump or are thrown from there do not survive."

(Image: Javier Aroche /wikimedia)

Local human rights activist Edgar Guerra said: "This type of phenomenon can be seen much more frequently: the use of underage children for murders."

He said one possible reasons for this was that the group did not want to be charged for the killing in case they were caught.

Children recruited by organized crime are a common thing among Latin American gangs.

Given the lack of education, and often poor background and the capacity to smuggle drugs or guns unnoticed, many underage children have become members of criminal organisations with little option of saying no.