A post-mortem is being carried out to determine how a three-year-old Palmerston North girl was critically injured and later died.
Police and ambulance staff were called to a house in Hulme Street on Wednesday afternoon where they the child unconscious.
The girl was taken to Palmerston North Hospital in a critical condition and died just
before noon on Thursday with family members at her bedside.
Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan says there was a man and four other children under the age of 10 at the house when they arrived.
Mr Sheridan at this stage, he cannot reveal the girl's relationship to the man, but some of the other children were her siblings.
He says it is too soon to speculate on how the girl was injured and it will require experts to help police interview the other children, a process which could take weeks.
Child, Youth and Family say the children are in the care of family.
