THE mother of little Andrea Auriglietti, the five-year-old boy who was found dead in the River Lea, has vowed to campaign to make the waterway safer.

Rita Auriglietti said that she will fight to prevent further deaths in the river as a tribute to her son.

'If a fence had been put there he would never have died. While I'm alive no-one will ever die in there again,' she said.

'I will not rest because my son's death means that something has to be done.'

Andrea went missing from his home in Erskine Crescent, Tottenham, on Sunday July 16 and was discovered by police frogmen at a lock on the river the next morning.

The boy had been playing in his back garden when he disappeared.

Police believe he had gone after his pet dog which had escaped.

Andrea managed to get over a fence and was last seen chasing the whippet towards Ferry Lane Bridge, which goes across the river.

Shortly before he went missing, Andrea was known to be with a group of local children who were aged between ten and early teens.

Mrs Auriglietti spoke of her family's grief at losing the youngest of her three children.

She said: 'This tragedy should never have happened. It is something that will be with me for the rest of my life, everybody is devastated.

'They took the most precious thing that you can take, a son and a brother and a five year-old full of life.

'He liked nature and he will never see what he called his 'creatures' again.'

Andrea was just finishing his first year at St Mary's School in Hermitage Road, South Tottenham.

Mrs Auriglietti said she was worried about the safety of the children near the river when the family first moved in.

'That river scared me and I said I would not let my kids anywhere near it,' she said.

'It is unsafe for children.'

Ashley Cohen, who lived two doors away from the Auriglietti family, drowned in the same stretch of water on his seventh birthday in 1995.

New Tottenham MP David Lammy is backing the Auriglietti's fight to make the River Lea safer and a protest was held on Wednesday July 19 at the spot where Andrea died.

A police investigation is underway and officers have been speaking to the children who were with Andrea.

A spokeswoman said police were keeping an 'open mind' about the death.