A nine-year-old boy found buried in a collapsed snowbank in Winnipeg’s Fort Richmond neighbourhood last Wednesday has died.

He had been in critical condition in hospital.

A neighbor told CTV News the boy was taken off a ventilator Saturday and passed away a short time later

Neighbours rushed to dig the boy out, using their hands to remove snow and free the child.

Paramedics responded and rushed the boy to hospital in critical condition.

Neighbours said they heard his mother yelling for help and rushed to dig him out. Several worked to free the boy.

Cathy Kinsman was in her house when neighbours came rushing to her door to ask for help.

"Just violent screaming – ‘We need help. We need help - a little boy's stuck in the snow,’” said Kinsman.

"They were saying the little boy was stuck in the snow and they needed help to try and get him out," Kinsman said.

"So we all put on our coats and ran outside and (started) digging, digging, digging away. He was pretty much buried on his chest and his legs, so we all just dug with our hands and whatever to get him out," she said.

“Some people had no gloves, mitts. Some people didn't have shoes on. They were just trying to get him out of the snow,” she said.

How the boy become trapped remains unknown at this time.

"Just has everyone really baffled. He was just making, I guess, a snow fort, and then I don't know what really happened after," said neighbour Srivats Vijayan.

"Me and the neighbour tried to take him inside, and then we tried to give him CPR, and then after that paramedics came in and tried to help out as well," said Vijayan.

Neighbours said the nine-year-old loved playing outdoors.

“He's a very playful kid. He's always outside playing in the snow. During the summers, he's always out on his bike," said Vijayan.

Kinsman said neighbours are rallying around the boy's family members. She did not want to identify them -- neither did police --but said they were new to Canada.

"He's a lovely little boy. He loves to play outside, especially to be in the snow. I think that was new for him," said Kinsman, who didn't say where they were from.

"He was learning English, and his mom as well, and trying to learn about being in Canada. Just a nice family."

- With reports from Alesia Fieldberg, Meghan Roberts and files from The Canadian Press