Kono — Thirteen year old Jonathan Lansana of Sinnah Town in the Gbenseh chiefdom, Kono district is reported to have committed suicide by hanging.

Father of the deceased Alex Lansana told Concord Times that at around 7:30pm on Tuesday he was looking for Jonathan to help him drop his mobile phone for a recharge but could not find him.

"I decided to take the phone myself. On my way back home, I met the deceased sitting on the step, I asked what was wrong with him but he could not talk to me," he explained.

Lansana added that he went into the house and asked his wife who told him that Jonathan joined some other boys to beat up his younger sister Bernadette for rice. The mother had apparently intervened and shouted at the deceased who became angry and kept away from the company of other members of the family.

The father said the late Jonathan went to his room where he wrote: "the return of the ghost" on a piece of paper which was found after his death.

He said at around 11:30pm, the mother went into the deceased room to search for him and found the deceased suspended with his neck tied to a rope.

"My wife woke me up. I came over to remove the rope from Jonathan's neck hoping that he will survive but to no avail," he said.

The Tankoro police visited the scene and the body has been taken to the Koidu government hospital for postmortem.