PETALING JAYA, JAN 16 -- The case of a 15-year-old boy who was killed by a chair hurled from the 21st floor of a low-cost flat is reclassified to murder from manslaughter.

The Malaysian Insight reported Kuala Lumpur CID chief Rusdi Mohd Isa confirming this and saying police have already started recording statements from the occupants of the flats.

The report further quoted Rusdi as saying the identification process of the culprit will take time as the forensic unit failed to get fingerprint traces from the chair that struck S. Satiswaran.

Satiswaran, a student of SMK La Salle in Petaling Jaya, was walking home from school with his mother to their flats on the 16th floor of Blok 102 at PPR Sri Pantai in Pantai Dalam when the 8.30pm incident happened.

The two were about to reach the stairs when the object, a blue desk chair, fell from an unknown height and directly hit the schoolboy. It also struck his mother.

His aunt, Vijayalaxhmi Sattayapan, laid the blame on Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) for the mismanagement of the flats.

Vijayalaxhmi said her family had for years complained about the poor conditions at the flats, adding that DBKL was not concerned about the safety of the blocks.