A probe has been launched into a serious medical incident in which a six‑year‑old boy’s heart stopped for about 16 minutes at Hong Kong Children’s Hospital after his breathing tube came loose from the ventilator.

The hospital on Saturday said it was “deeply concerned” about the case.

“The hospital has taken immediate measures to strengthen the monitoring of patients requiring ventilator care in the intensive care unit,” it said in a statement.

“A root cause analysis panel will be set up to investigate the incident and recommend improvement measures.”

According to the hospital, the boy, who suffers from a rare underlying disease, was admitted to the Kai Tak facility on December 24 last year.

He underwent an interventional procedure under general anaesthesia on Thursday, and was then transferred to the paediatric intensive care unit for monitoring, where he remained intubated and on ventilator support.

At 7.29am the following day, a nurse found him in cardiac arrest and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation.