A seven-year-old boy who nearly died from alcohol poisoning after a playground booze binge has vowed never to drink again.

The boy from Spandau near Berlin was rushed to hospital with a blood alcohol level of 0.2 per cent after being found shaking and vomiting by passers-by on Sunday night.

Fortunately the youngster recovered, and has now said he won't drink alcohol again "because it doesn't taste good and is not good for you."

The drama began on Sunday when Ricardo went with his older brother Torsten (9) to the playground.

Four teenagers sitting on a bench offered the kids chocolate and some cola in a cup. Ricardo and Torsten accepted.

“Then they told us they were going to mix some Fanta with the cola and poured something in from another bottle,” Ricardo told German TV programme ‘Akte 09’.

The brothers drank some more, but suddenly they felt ill. Ricardo wanted to go home. As he began stumbling out of the park he collapsed, and members of the public called the emergency services straight away.

An ambulance rushed Ricardo to hospital where doctors determined the alcohol poisoning to be the result of cola mixed with vodka. The young boy couldn’t discern the taste neutral taste of the booze mixed with the cola.

The police are now seeking to charge the teens responsible with attempted assault.

No negligence charges will be brought against the boys' mother Rebecca W. as they were allowed to play on the playground during daytime.

Even if Ricardo’s case is an extreme, binge drinking amongst the young is increasing. In February 2007, 16-year-old Lukas W. of Berlin drank 45 shots of tequila and died with a blood-alcohol level of 4.4 per cent.

According to German insurer Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), for the year 2008 in Hamburg alone, 1,765 underage teens was admitted to clinics with the diagnosis of “psychological and behavioural disorders due to alcohol” – a rise of 174 in such cases on the previous year.

Projecting the TK’s results onto the whole of Germany, about 20,000 alcohol-related hospital stays take place among the country’s youngsters per year, making binge drinking one of the frequent reasons for the hospitalisation of children and adolescents.

Originally published as Binge drinker, 7, vows to stay sober