The four-year-old daughter of former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson has died after accidentally strangling herself.

Exodus Tyson was found hanging from a cord dangling from a treadmill at her home in Phoenix, Arizona, on Monday.

She was rushed to hospital in an "extremely critical condition" and put on a life support machine, but pronounced dead yesterday at noon local time.

Police said Exodus was playing on the treadmill when her head apparently slipped inside a cord hanging under the console.

She was found with the cord around her neck by her seven-year-old brother. While emergency services rushed to the scene, the girl's mother tried to revive the child.

Tyson, 42, was in Las Vegas at the time of the accident and flew to Phoenix on Monday.

He was seen entering the hospital after arriving in the city.

In a statement before Exodus' death, he said: "The Tyson family would like to extend our deepest and most heartfelt thanks for all your prayers and support, and we ask that we be allowed our privacy at this difficult time."

The former boxer's spokeswoman, Cynthia Schwartz, said the family had not yet arranged a funeral and would release a statement later.

Sgt Andy Hill said evidence suggested that the injuries were the result of a "tragic accident".

He added: "Somehow she was playing on this treadmill, and there's a cord that hangs under the console, it's kind of a loop.

"Either she slipped or put her head in the loop, but it acted like a noose and she was obviously unable to get herself out of it."

In a statement today, the Tyson family said: "There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Exodus.

"We ask you now to please respect our need at this very difficult time for privacy to grieve and try to help each other heal."

The family home is in a modest, quiet neighbourhood. Residents said they saw Tyson there from time to time and the children played outside regularly.

The neighbourhood contrasts starkly with the lavish lifestyle Tyson had through his tumultuous years of boxing, when he spent tens of millions of dollars.

During two years at the height of his career, he earned an estimated 140 million dollars (£88m).

But the death of his child adds a grim chapter to the boxer's troubled life.

Tyson first began boxing at a centre for juvenile delinquents in upstate New York at the age of 12. Eight years later he became the youngest heavyweight champion when he knocked out Trevor Berbick in 1986.

But in 1990, he was defeated by James "Buster" Douglas in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history and soon after was convicted of raping a beauty pageant contestant in Indianapolis.

Tyson, who still denies he raped the woman, served three years in prison.

A few years later, he served three months in jail for beating up two men after a minor car crash in suburban Washington.

Other controversial incidents saw him bite a piece off Evander Holyfield's ear during a bout, and once threaten to eat the children of heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis.

Although Tyson's children had lived in their unassuming neighbourhood for several years, he bought a separate home in the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley in 2005 for £1.3 million, selling it two years later for £1.45 million.

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