A toddler who fell into a garden pond died last night as his parents made the agonising decision to switch off his life support machine.

Adrian and Caren Black said their final goodbyes at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital to 20-month-old Tyler, who had fallen into the pond in the back garden of the family's home in Field Street, Bicester, on Monday.

The Blacks tried to resuscitate Tyler and were helped by neighbouring pub landlord Steve Cook, before paramedics took the unconscious toddler to the John Radcliffe Hospital.

He did not regain consciousness and Mr and Mrs Black had to make the difficult decision to switch off their son's life-support after doctors said he had suffered serious brain damage and damage to his internal organs.

Mrs Black said: "The best possibility for Tyler was to just let go because then he is not suffering any more."

The couple had him christened Tyler Jake Alan Black in hospital on Tuesday.

Mr Black said the pond had been in the garden since 1998. He added: "Poor Caren is devastated. She tried to breathe life into Tyler while I was giving him heart massage.

"No-one is to blame for what happened. It was a tragic accident and you can not watch children 24-hours-a-day."

Mrs Black said she thought he had followed the dog out into the garden. She added: "I had to lean over and drag him out of the pond.

"I gave him mouth-to-mouth but it was not enough. The landlord of the pub next door also tried to help, and so did the neighbours."

Mrs Black said she and her husband, a vehicle recovery technician, had recently returned to set up home in Bicester after living in Eastleigh, Hampshire.

Mr Cook, landlord of The Plough pub next door to the Blacks' home, said Mrs Black used to work in the pub as a cleaner.

He added: "Someone was screaming, so I came down from the office and the mother and father had the little lad on the front step.

"I tried to give him mouth-to-mouth before the ambulance arrived but he was blue when I got to him. It's so sad."

Roger Vincent, a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa) said eight children under five drowned in garden ponds every year.

According to Oxfordshire's firefighters drowning is the second highest cause of accidental death among children under 14 and children under the age of five are at highest risk.