Lucknow, May 13 (IANS): The body of a five-year-old boy was found in a scrap dumping yard in Lucknow, the police said.

The howling of stray dogs at the site attracted the attention of locals who then saw the body and informed the police.

The police said that the boy might have suffocated in the dump as there were no marks of injury on his body.

The victim was a resident of Mawaiya and his mother identified the body.

Station House Officer (SHO) Alambagh, Dhananjay Singh, said that the boy went missing on Wednesday night, but his mother did not inform the police and kept on searching for him on her own.

His mother works as a house help.

"We are writing to the Lucknow Municipal Corporation and Railway official to enquire as to under whose jurisdiction the land falls and then encroachment will be removed with the help of the concerned department," he said.

"We have sent the body for the post-mortem to ascertain the reason behind his death. The deceased's family has not given any complaint."